Have you ever wondered about how to improve an existing building to make it more energy efficient? That’s the focus of a UNM Continuing Education Class taught by Jerald L. Rounds, AGC Endowed Chair Professor in the Civil Engineering Department. He will be joined by Birk Jones, who has recently graduated with a master’s degree in engineering.
They note that existing commercial and residential buildings are responsible for almost half of all energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. This class will examine ways to analyze energy use and will explore ways to retrofit the buildings to operate more cost effectively. They will use UNM’s Continuing Education Building as an example. It will also explain techniques for performing cost estimates and ways to finance the retrofit projects.
There are two sections for the class. The first section begins Feb. 2 and will meet on Tuesdays and Thursday from 1 – 5 p.m. until Feb. 18. The second section begins on March 17 and will run through March 19. That section meets from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Jerald Rounds is a registered professional engineer in Colorado and Iowa and spent five years in project management of commercial building construction before beginning his academic career.
Birk Jones has worked for building construction companies and various civil and structural engineering firms across the country. He is currently pursuing certification for the Home Energy Rating system (HERS), Building Performance (BPI) and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).
The class is partially underwritten by a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor and the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Special luncheon seminar to be held Feb. 5
The deadline to register for UNM Technology Business Plan competition, with expected prizes totaling $40,000, is Friday, Feb. 5. Open only to UNM students, this competition fosters entrepreneurial activity and offers exposure to venture capital and angel funders as well as legal, accounting, and banking professionals.
Photo: John Freisinger to present business plan seminar.
To enter, students need to submit an “Intention to Present” form by 5 p.m. Forms can be found in the complete rules available at: Technology Business Plan.
Also on Feb 5, the Anderson School of Management will host a seminar on “Presenting the Business Plan,” with guest speaker John Freisinger, Director of Business Assistance with Technology Ventures Corporation (TVC). The seminar takes place from 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. The seminar is open to all UNM students. To secure your spot R.S.V.P. to Jennifer Bayley, bayley@mgt.unm.edu, 277-6172 by Jan. 31. Lunch will be provided.
As an executive speaking coach, award winning Toastmaster, and national columnist, Freisinger helps entrepreneurs craft messages that resonate with investors. Technology Ventures Corporation (TVC) is a non-profit organization linking entrepreneurs with funding sources. TVC charges no fees and accepts no equity in firms for their services. TVC sponsors the $10,000 TVC Lockheed Martin Prize supporting the UNM Technology Business Plan Competition. Operational funding for the presentation skills seminar is provided by the NM Wired Initiative.
Jesse Alemán, UNM associate professor of English, presents the 2010 Richard W. Etulain Lecture, “From Union Officers to Cuban Rebels: The Story of the Brothers Cavada and their American Civil Wars,” Thursday, Feb. 18, at 5:30 p.m. in the UNM Student Union Building, Lobo A and B. This event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the lecture.
Photo: Jesse Alemán
Alemán joined the faculty in 1999 and his scholarship and teaching cover two inter-related fields: nineteenth-century American literature and the emergence of Mexican America. His work focuses on the literary histories and national identities forged in the U.S. Southwest after the 1846-1848 U.S.-Mexico War. He has published more than a dozen articles in scholarly journals and edited collections.
Alemán edited and reprinted Loreta Janeta Velazquez’s 1876 autobiography, The Woman in Battle, which recounts the adventures of a Cuban woman who cross-dressed as a Confederate soldier to fight in the U.S. Civil War; and he co-edited Empire and the Literature of Sensation, an anthology of nineteenth-century popular literature about U.S. imperialism in Mexico and Cuba. He is working on “Wars of Rebellion,” a book that places nineteenth-century Hispanic writings about the U.S. Civil War within a context that considers related wars of rebellion in Cuba and Mexico.
The Etulain Lecture was conceived by Calvin P. Horn and David Holtby to honor the professional accomplishments of UNM History Professor Richard W. Etulain. The endowed lecture series is presented by UNM faculty members whose scholarship contributes to the regional history of the Southwest. The series is funded by the C. Ruth and Calvin P. Horn Endowment.
For more information on the 2010 Etulain Lecture, or other events sponsored by the Center for the Southwest, contact Rebecca Vanucci at 277-7688 or e-mail, cntrsw@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Lisa Burns, case manager with the Center for Refugee Settlement and Services at Catholic Charities, presents, “Politics of the Cuban Political Refugee Program,” Tuesday, Feb. 2 at 1 p.m. in the Latin American and Iberian Institute, 801 Yale Blvd. NE.
Burns will outline the basic financial and administrative services provided to political refugees primarily from Cuba but also from countries including Burma, Bhutan, Congo, Iraq, Haiti, Nepal and Tanzania. Burns will also address the financial, bureaucratic and social challenges Cubans faced in Albuquerque.
Finally, Burns questions the efficacy of the U.S. refugee program and the government’s (in)adherence to international human rights law by highlighting the distinct differences between the U.S. government’s treatment of Cuban and Haitian refugees.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
At the request of the Executive Vice Presidents, Chief Information Officer Gil Gonzales is facilitating a campus-wide discussion about the strategic direction of e-mail, calendar and messaging at UNM. Campus participation is being sought at public forums to be held in February and March, and also by a short survey which will be open to students, faculty and staff for responses.
More information on this initiative can be found at Messaging Initiatives, and additional information will be sent out between now and the upcoming forums.
Divisional executives have also been asked to appoint representatives on a Steering Committee for this project. The Committee will convene in early February, and people who are interested in participating should contact their division head or Deputy Chief Information Officer Moira Gerety at 277-0752 or mcgerety@unm.edu. Please identify your school or department affiliation so your interest can be passed along appropriately.
Media Contact: Vanessa Baca, (505) 277-0987; e-mail: vjbaca1@unm.edu
Cadet Delilah Chinana is the recipient of the 2010 George C. Marshall - Henry H. Arnold Air Force ROTC Award, as selected by UNM AFROTC Lt. Col. Raul Garcia. Chinana is a 2005 graduate of Jemez Valley High School and the daughter of Alondo and Diane Chinana of Albuquerque. Chinana, a political science major, plans to graduate from UNM in May and will become a contracting officer in the Air Force.
Photo: Cadet Delilah Chinana
“My dad is retired army, which made me think about joining the military. We’ve always traveled a lot across the country,” she said. Air Force caught her eye when she visited an air base.
Later this month Chinana will join 143 other Air Force ROTC cadets in Reston, Va., to participate in the fifth Marshall - Arnold Award Seminar on National Security Issues.
“It was a surprise to receive the award. The last person [Lt. Jesus Burciaga] who got it was my role model. I might be able to be that for someone else. Prior to receiving it, I never realized what an honor it was,” she said.
“The seminar is designed to recognize outstanding Air Force ROTC cadets, to educate them on the lives of two of our nation’s most outstanding military leaders and to provide a forum for the discussion of national security issues,” Garcia said.
He said that Chinana will have access to senior level leaders of the Air Force and administration, and she will meet her peers in a forum prior to commissioning.
The 2010 seminar features national security topics in roundtables. “The roundtable sessions are intended to provoke thought and discussion. This format will allow Chinana to have open and candid discussions with subject matter experts as well as peers,” Garcia said.
The event features top level speakers including General Norton A. Schwartz, General Stephen R. Lorenz, Major General Judith A. Fedder and Brigadier General Theresa A. H. Djuric. Former Air Force Chief of Staff, General John Jumper, USAF (Ret) serves as this year’s seminar chairman.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
The University of New Mexico will test its emergency notifications systems including the campus warning siren and text messaging systems on Tuesday, Feb. 9 at 11:02 A.M. UNM tests the emergency sirens every semester. The sirens alert the campus community to seek shelter indoors. They are used to warn about emergencies that make it unsafe to be outdoors. That could include a severe lightening storm, an environmental hazard or threat from an armed individual.
There is no action required of individuals during the test. Individuals who have signed up for the text alert system will receive a test text message. Individuals who have UNM email addresses will receive an email test message. The UNM home page will carry information about the test.
In the test, the siren will sound for one minute, there will be a pause, then the All Clear will sound.
The instruction to people on campus during an actual activation, are to seek immediate shelter and look for additional information. This additional information could come through the UNM TextMe Alert System, e-mail, the UNM web page and/or local media.
UNM will test this system once each semester. The last exercise of this system was during the spring semester in Ocotber, 2009.
For a siren sample, click on the respective link.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Representative Rick Miera (D-Albuquerque) recently introduced the “Hispanic Education Act” in the 2010 New Mexico Legislative session. This main purpose of this bill is “to provide for the study, development and implementation of educational systems that affect the educational success of Hispanic students to close the achievement gap and increase graduation rates.” This week “New Mexico in Focus” correspondent Peter St. Cyr discusses the proposed bill with Miera, Dr. Jose Armas of the Latin/Hispano Education Improvement Task Force and Ellen Bernstein, president of the Albuquerque Teachers Federation.
New Mexico In Focus” airs on Friday, Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. on KNME-TV channel 5.1 and repeating on Sunday, Jan. 31 at 6:30 a.m. Hosted by Gene Grant, columnist for the Weekly Alibi, “New Mexico in Focus” takes a multi-layered look at social, political, economic, health, education, and arts issues and explores them in-depth, with a critical eye to give them context beyond the “news of the moment.”
Another important issue coming up is the Albuquerque Public Schools bond vote. “New Mexico in Focus” correspondent Tracy Dingmann takes at look at the bond issue with Kizito Wijenje, the director of the APS Capital Master Plan, Paul Gessing, executive director of the Rio Grande Foundation and the Rev. Trey Hammond, co-chair of Albuquerque Interfaith.
Then Grant will sit down with regular panelists Sophie Martin and Jim Scarantino and guest panelists Jane Blume, owner of Desert Sky Communications, and Laura Sanchez, former executive director of the New Mexico Democratic Party to debate the APS bond issue, the first New Mexico bank failure since 1999, what the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on campaign donations might mean for New Mexico, and Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry’s war on property crime.
New Mexico in Focus can also be seen on KNME’s Digital Channel 9.1 on Saturdays at 5 p.m. Additionally, viewers can also watch it online at: KNME (www.knme.org).
“New Mexico in Focus” is produced by Kevin McDonald and Kathy Wimmer and closed captioning has been made possible by a gift from Mrs. Elspeth G. Bobbs.
Media Contact: Evy Todd, (505) 277-1812; e-mail: etodd@knme.org
John Kantner from the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe will speak on “Chaco Canyon: Costly Signaling and the Evolution of Pilgrimage Centers” at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 4, in the Hibben Center Room 105 on UNM’s main campus. The lecture is free and the public is welcome.
Kantner will consider how the practice of pilgrimage is a costly signal of religious adherence since pilgrims typically engage in a variety of costly behaviors that affirm their commitment to the religion while operating as a eterrent to cheaters. At the same time, the pilgrimage center itself is a separate but interrelated costly signal of power.
Kantner proposes that both costly signals operate side-by-side to promote cooperation and differentiation simultaneously, qualities that mark many middle range societies. He will use the 11th century pilgrimage center of Chaco Canyon as a case study.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Four UNM student interns are now reporting on the activities of the current session of the Legislature in Santa Fe, sending their radio reports to more than 55 stations across the state. At the same time, their counterparts in Washington, D.C., a group of five students, are learning the basics of news reporting as actual reporters for NMBA.
All the students are part of a joint project between the UNM journalism program, New Mexico Broadcasters Association and Young American Broadcasters (YAB). All are from New Mexico communities. The program, now in its second calendar year, provides young people with real life reporting skills and the opportunity to put those skills into practice.
Ellen Ratner, Talk Radio News Service bureau chief, said, “This program is fulfilling a need for the students to learn and practice a skill while preparing a new generation of broadcasters to update and educate the public about important issues in Santa Fe and Washington, D.C. This program is the only one in the U.S. and we hope a model that be extended across the nation.”
The students now interning in Santa Fe spent the fall semester in Washington, D.C. reporting from Congress, government offices and interviewing officials. They worked out of the TRNS bureau, lived in intern housing and attended events throughout the District.
“By sponsoring this program, the NMBA is continuing its mission to broadcast information to New Mexicans while at the same time helping train the people who will be working in the industry tomorrow,” said Milt McConnell, NMBA’s current board chairman. “It’s a win, win program.”
McConnell said the NMBA provided $30,000 to UNM for a year of the program, which offsets transportation and housing costs for the first part of the program. While in Washington, they are supervised by YAB and TRNS. The interns reporting from Santa Fe are supervised by Melanie Majors, a former New Mexico reporter and news producer. UNM Professor Richard Schaefer is the university sponsor.
The Washington interns have interviewed U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall, sharing their reports with New Mexico radio stations while their counterparts in Santa Fe have distributed stories on the budget, legislation to open the House to webcasting, UNM Day and a piece that is looking at tax incentives for the New Mexico film industry – a story that was picked up by the major media in New Mexico.
Washington interns include Antonia Aguilar, Monique Cala, Benny Martinez, Laurel Prichard and Sofia Sanchez. The interns now working in Santa Fe are: Julie La Jeunsse, Travis Martinez, Laura Smith and Leah Valencia.
A goal is to have the current DC interns cover the New Mexico Legislature and other statewide news in 2011. Another plan is to extend the program to students at other New Mexico universities.
For more information, contact: Paula Maes, New Mexico Broadcasters paulamaes@nmba.org or (505) 881-4444; or Ellen Ratner, Talk Radio News Service, ellen@talkradionews.com"> or (617)640-3999
Bruce Fryer, the CEO of ProtoHIT, Inc. will discuss the concept of due diligence and its critical importance to the success of a new company in the first STC.UNM Spring Seminar on Tuesday, Feb. 2, at noon in the Stamm Commons, Room 1044 in the Centennial Engineering Center. He says founders of companies are often blinded by their idea or are clueless about the hard work that due diligence requires. The seminar is free and open to the UNM community and the public. Box lunches will be provided.
Photo: Bruce Fryer
Other seminars for the spring are listed below.
Tuesday, Feb. 9
“The Dark Side of Business”
Douglas M. Brown
Dean, Anderson School of Management
Acoma A & B, Upper Level, Student Union Building (SUB)
Noon-1 p.m.
Topic: The financial meltdown of 2008 was ignited by a blowtorch of greed, distortion of risk/reward, and absence of oversight and of checks and balances. Business in general, and banking in particular, will be spending time in the pubic penalty box for years to come. Emergence will depend on how well we are able to craft new rules of ethical conduct and how well we adhere to them.
__________________________________________________________________
Wednesday, Feb. 17
“To Boldly Go . . .”
Jennifer A. Baird
President & CEO
Accuri Cytometers, Inc.
Domenici Education Center, Room 3010
UNM HSC Campus
Noon-1 pm
Baird will present Accuri Cytometers, Inc. as a case study for describing principles and lessons learned on developing entrepreneurial technology companies. As co-founder and CEO of a successful start-up turned second-stage commercial life science tools company, Baird will describe the process of identifying and qualifying a market opportunity, how she raised $27M to support the growth of the company, how her team developed and marketed the technology and products, and what is next on the horizon for this fast growing company.
__________________________________________________________________
Thursday, Feb. 25
Title: TBD
Ellen Gonzales, Esq.
Gonzales Patent Law Office
Domenici Education Center, Room 3010
UNM HSC Campus
Noon-1 p.m.
Topic: Gonzales will present an overview of what intellectual property is and how to protect it, and will provide an update on any changes from the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office that UNM inventors should be aware of.
__________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, March 9
“The Patent Reform Act--Should You Start Working Out and Saving More?”
Dr. Timothy M. Hsieh
Managing Partner, MH2 Technology Law Group, LLP
Acoma A & B, Upper Level, Student Union Building (SUB)
Noon-1 p.m.
Topic: Due to pressing issues like health care and the BCS playoff system, the Patent Reform Act of 2009 remains pending before Congress. It’s very likely, though, that the House and Senate will take up patent reform again in 2010. This talk will discuss the changes being considered, concerns about those changes, and how they might affect what you do in the lab.
For more information on the seminars and to register online, visit our web site at STC News and Registration or contact Denise Bissell at 272-7310 or dbissell@stc.unm.edu.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Opening reception set for Friday, Feb. 5 from 5 to 7 p.m.
Philadelphia-born, Parisian artist Man Ray (1890–1976) has been recognized as one of the most important artists of the 20th century. He translated the early modernist taste for African art into photographs in the 1920s and ’30s. About 60 of these, many never before exhibited, along with more than 40 rare photographs by his contemporaries, Cecil Beaton, Walker Evans and Alfred Stieglitz, will appear side-by-side with some of the African objects featured in the images.
The exhibition, “Man Ray, African Art and the Modernist Lens,” reveals photography’s complex engagement with African art by exploring it in the context of American modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, surrealism and the worlds of high fashion and popular culture.
The UNM Art Museum is the only venue west of the Potomac River to present this ground-breaking exhibition, on view Feb. 6-May 30. The opening reception will feature jazz by Albuquerque’s Michael Anthony Trio on Friday, Feb. 5, 5-7 p.m. It is free to the public.
“Man Ray, African Art and the Modernist Lens” presents images and objects together to show how lighting, camera angle and cropping manipulated the objects to serve Western ideas of beauty and art. The exhibit also documents the histories and uses of the objects.
A Distinguished Speaker Series sponsored by the University Art Museum and the UNM Department of Art and Art History accompanies the exhibition:
Tuesday, Feb. 9, 12:30 p.m.: Sonia Gipson-Rankin, UNM Africana studies, “My Black is Beautiful: The Quest to Change the Representation of Black Women in the Media”
Tuesday, Feb. 16, 5:30 p.m.: Katherine Ware, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, “In the Beginning: Man Ray in New York”
Thursday, Feb. 25, 11:30 a.m.: Kirsten Buick, UNM art history, “Whose Africa? Aesthetic Appropriations as Counter-Narratives during the Harlem Renaissance”
Tuesday, March 9, 2 p.m.: Walter Putnam, UNM French, “Americans in Paris: Lee and Man, Man and Lee”
Tuesday, March 23, 5:30 p.m.: exhibit curator Wendy Grossman, University of Maryland, “Man Ray, African Art and the Modernist Lens: Framing the Discourse”
Tuesday, April 6, 5:30 p.m.: Patricia Leighten, “A ‘Rationale of Ugliness:’ Primitivism, Cubism and Its Audience”
The University Art Museum, located in the Center for the Arts next to Popejoy Hall, is open Tuesdays, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Wednesday-Friday, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays, 1-4 p.m. Call (505) 277-4001 or visit unm.edu/~artmuse.
“Man Ray, African Art and the Modernist Lens” was curated by Wendy Grossman, Ph.D., and is organized by International Arts & Artists, with funding from the Terra Foundation for American Art, National Endowment for the Arts and the Dedalus Foundation. At UNM funding has been provided by the Regents’ Speaker Endowment, Albuquerque Chapter of The Links and New Mexico Office of African American Affairs.
View a video by artist Greg Metcalf commissioned by the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. at Art Museum Videos/.
Museum renovation, expansion on schedule
While “Man Ray, African Art and the Modernist Lens” is on view, construction on the second floor of the UNM Art Museum continues. The 9,000 square foot addition is expected to be completed in April. Additions include the Clinton Adams Gallery, Beaumont Newhall Study Room, Enyeart/Malone Library and Archive, and a new media gallery.
The Clinton Adams Gallery is named for the first director of the UNM Art Museum, who also served as Dean of the College of Fine Arts 1961-76. The Beaumont Newhall Study Room is named for the first curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art, who joined the faculty at UNM in 1971, where he finished his career. The Enyeart/Malone Library and Archive will contain an overview of the history of photography and rare archives from two of America’s leading photography experts, James Enyeart and Roxanne Malone.
The museum reopens Sept. 10, 2010.
The University of New Mexico is experiencing a cyber explosion, with unprecedented growth in online enrollment through Extended University. As of Jan. 22, student enrollment in online courses shot up 47 percent, from 1,492 in spring 2009 to 2,199 in spring 2010. That’s more than double national growth in online enrollment, recently reported at 17 percent. Student credit hours grew by 72 percent in that period, from 5,257 to 9,037.
“We’ve never seen this much growth,” Vice Provost Jerry Dominguez said.
He suggested several reasons for the increase: faculty becoming more comfortable teaching online, students – especially working students – finding it more convenient, a highly-trained professional staff supporting faculty and students, and the closing of the digital divide. Though access isn’t universal, many can now use the Internet at home, work, libraries, schools, colleges or cybercafés.
Extended University serves students from almost every county in New Mexico. “We try to make the experience as close as possible to what they get on campus,” Dominguez said.
Extended University’s New Media and Extended Learning works with instructors to adapt and develop courses for online formats. Student advisement is offered in conjunction with CAPS, the Center for Academic Program Support, to expand tutoring for distance education students, and University Libraries have increased services supporting distance learners.
Of course, not all educational experiences are best suited to the Internet. For the College of Nursing’s online bachelor’s and master’s degrees, students take coursework on the Web and do supervised clinical work where they live.
Extended University, working with UNM colleges, has targeted 15 bachelor’s degree and certificate programs for distance education development, to be delivered primarily online. Targeted programs include Navajo linguistics, elementary education, architecture, communication & journalism, psychology, English and business administration.
As student demand and faculty interest has risen, Extended University has expanded online offerings, with 30 more sections this spring than last. At President David Schmidly’s request, Extended University is considering 37 of UNM’s most popular classes, including core courses, for online course development. The goal is to make the courses that fill up fastest available to more students.
Though interest in online education is already growing rapidly, Extended University is doing what it can to push that growth further. A revenue sharing model encourages colleges to generate more online credit hours. Faculty liaisons establish peer faculty relationships within colleges and schools. The positions, funded by small annual stipends, are designed to recruit faculty to teach online and support them in the development and delivery of online courses.
Dominguez said some students still prefer other forms of distance education. Extended University also offers Interactive Television and correspondence courses, as well as live classes at field centers.
Extended University has field centers at branch campuses or community colleges in Taos, Valencia, Gallup, San Juan, Los Alamos and Santa Fe, as well as one at Kirtland Air Force Base. Dominguez said their goal is to establish partnerships with every community college in New Mexico so that anyone who wants to complete a degree at UNM will have that opportunity.
Media Contact: Sari Krosinsky, (505) 277-1583; e-mail: michal@unm.edu
No one is more interested in the tiny changes in Bridge #7937 on I-40 near Tucumcari than the UNM Department of Civil Engineering. Over the summer Professor Mahmoud Taha and his research team installed sensors to monitor reactions the bridge has as trucks travel across it. Strain gauges look at how the bridge is responding to heavy loads. Accelerometers measure acceleration and both are connected to a Smart Data Acquisition system that sends the information, along with temperature readings back to the UNM structures lab. At the lab a scale model of the bridge is monitored by the research team.
Photo: Graduate students with model bridge in structures lab.
"There is no way to measure damage directly, but we can monitor the structure as it reacts to repeated loads and try to find the point at which the structure begins to react differently,” Taha says.
Artificial intelligence algorithms developed by Taha and his research team at UNM are used to pattern the bridge behavior and recognize its deviation from the normal performance as damage takes place.
“Integrating these technologies can prevent catastrophes like the one which happened in Minneapolis in 2007,” he says, “and that is the focus of our research.”
This bridge is of particular interest to the New Mexico Department of Transportation because it needs strengthening to meet the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) standards. The UNM team designed, built and installed the monitoring system and software needed to monitor the bridge. The project was funded by FHWA. The new system operates on solar cells and communicates all its data wirelessly.
Taha says, “This project shows that with such advanced technology we can provide sustainable monitoring of infrastructure anywhere in the world.”
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
The UNM Office of Career Services presents Career Expo 2010, scheduled Thursday, Feb. 11 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Student Union Building Ballrooms. The Career Expo is the premier career fair on campus with more than 80 local and national employers from various industries including accounting, aerospace & defense, construction & planning, education, engineering, financial services, government, health care, human resources, management, military, nonprofit, research, transportation services and much more will be in attendance.
This is the perfect opportunity for job seekers to connect with multiple employers in just one day! We ask job seekers to come prepared, professionally dressed, and with plenty of copies of their resume.
The Career Expo is open to all UNM students, alumni and community members. For an up-to-date detailed list of registered recruiters and their openings visit: Office of Career Services or call the office at (505) 277-2531 for more information.
Career Expo Preparation
Coinciding with the Career Expo is Resume Rescue. Resume Rescue takes place before a career fair and during these days job seekers can come by Career Services, and on a walk-in basis, meet with a Career Development Facilitator to create or update a resume and/or ask any questions related to the career fair. Resume Rescue dates are scheduled for Monday-Tuesday, Feb. 8-9 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Career Services will also be conducting two How to Work a Career Fair Workshops. Topics will include general job search processes, career fairs, resumes and interviews, as well as any questions or topics asked by the workshop group. Please take note of the dates, times and locations of these workshops.
• Feb. 9, 10 a.m. - 11 a.m.
UNM School of Engineering - Centennial Engineering Center - Room 2080
• Feb. 10, 12 - 1 p.m.
UNM Office of Career Services - Student Services Room 220
Walter D. Mignolo, the William H. Wannamaker professor of literature and romance studies, and professor of Cultural Anthropology, and Spanish at Duke University, will speak on “The Global South and World Dis/Order” on Thursday, March 4, at 7:30 p.m. in the UNM Anthropology Lecture Hall room 163. This is the 30th Distinguished Lecture sponsored by the Journal of Anthropological Research at UNM.
Photo: Walter D. Mignolo
In his lecture Mignolo will discuss the contrasting ways history is viewed by local cultures as opposed to colonizing cultures. He will explore how imperial designs drove colonizers to try to create one culture and the way local cultures view that imposition of world view.
Mignolo will also offer a specialized seminar on Friday, March 5, at 12 p.m. in Anthropology room 248. The seminar is titled “The Many Faces of 1492: Historical Evidences and Interpretive Disobedience.”
Mignolo is one of the world’s top scholars of post colonial thought and literary criticism. He has a doctorate from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris, one of France’s most prestigious academic institutions. He also has a Licenciature from the Universidad de Cordoba in his native Argentina.
Mignolo is well-known writer on postcolonial South America. He has written several books including “Globalization and the De-Colonial Option, Cultural Studies,” “The Idea of Latin America,” “Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges and Border Thinking,” and “The Darker Side of the Renaissance: Literacy, Territoriality and Colonization.”
Both the lecture and seminar are free and open to the public. The Anthropology building is located on the University of New Mexico campus near Roma Ave. at Redondo Rd. (East of University Blvd.)
The “Journal of Anthropological Research” has been published quarterly by the University of New Mexico in the interest of general anthropology since 1945. For more information on the journal please call (505) 277-4544 or visit: Journal of Anthropological Research.
The Latin American & Iberian Institute is currently accepting applications for the 2010-2011 Richard E. Greenleaf Graduate Fellowship. The application deadline is Wednesday, March 31, at 5 p.m. at the LAII, 801 Yale Blvd NE.
One fellowship is awarded annually to a graduate student pursuing studies in the field of colonial Latin America, with a preference for Mexico, or New Mexico.
The fellowship honors Richard Greenleaf, distinguished scholar of colonial Latin American history, and his extensive career in teaching, research, service and mentorship locally, regionally and internationally.
The Richard E. Greenleaf Graduate Fellow will review and work with printed materials from the Greenleaf collection in preparation for scholarly publications. At the conclusion of the academic year, the fellow will present a report of work accomplished to the director of the LAII. The award includes a stipend of $6,000 plus six hours of graduate, resident tuition and student health insurance for the 2010-2011 academic year. The fellow will work 10 hours per week during the fall and spring semesters, except during university-wide holidays.
For more information and applicable forms, visit Greenleaf Fellowship.
Direct any questions to committees@laii.unm.edu.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
The UNM Latin American and Iberian Institute is soliciting submissions by faculty and graduate students for publication in the LAII's peer-reviewed, electronic Research Paper Series and Reference Works Series. The deadline for submissions is Feb. 26.
The Research Paper Series provides a venue for the publication of academic research. Relevant disciplines include anthropology, art history, economics, education, gender, cultural studies, geography, health sciences, history, journalism, linguistics, literature, music, natural sciences, political science, sociology and related fields.
Interdisciplinary research is encouraged. Submissions should focus on Latin America and/or Iberia (Spain and Portugal). Papers may be written in English, Spanish, or Portuguese. Papers should be between 5,000-8,750 words, including notes and bibliography.
The Reference Works Series is a forum for bibliographies, book reviews, interviews, archival indices, catalogs and other important material that is not suitable for publication as a research paper.
For more information refer to the Submission Guidelines.
A full-text archive of previously published titles is available at Research Paper Series and Reference Works Series.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Informational session set for Wednesday, Feb. 10
The Latin American & Iberian Institute is now accepting applications for the Spring 2010 Field Research Grants. LAII’s field research grants support faculty and graduate student field research in Latin America and Iberia. Completed applications are due Friday, March 12 by 5 p.m. at the LAII, 801 Yale Blvd NE.
The LAII hosts an informational help session at the LAII Wednesday, Feb. 10 at noon to assist students with the application process. Refreshments will be provided.
Field research grants provide graduate students with funding for their first or second field research experience. The grants encourage foreign area research in Latin America and Iberia of direct relevance to Latin American studies, and are intended primarily for relatively brief periods of research, such as four to eight weeks. If awarded, the funding may be used to support student research conducted at any time between April 1 and Oct. 31.
The grants also offer faculty members the opportunity to begin fieldwork on new projects or to complete, supplement or add a comparative dimension to substantial field research conducted previously. Tenured or tenure-track faculty members are eligible, and may apply individually or jointly. If awarded, the funding may be used to support faculty research conducted at any time during the 12 months following April 1.
For more information, instructions and applicable forms visit: Research Funding.
For questions about student or faculty applications, contact Keira Philipp-Schnurer, graduate assistant for the LAII Grants & Awards Committee, at, committees@laii.unm.edu or (505) 277-7049.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
James Dixon, Anthropology professor and director of the Maxwell Museum, is conducting exciting research exploring glaciers in Alaska to discover ancient frozen artifacts. Some of his research was filmed last summer in Alaska and at the Maxwell for a segment of National Geographic Television’s "Naked Science: Surviving Ancient Alaska." The show will premier on national television on Jan. 28, at 10 p.m. eastern standard time.
For an advanced video preview and photos go to:
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/naked-science/4233/Overview#tab-Videos/07674_00
As part of a university-wide project, Information Technologies (IT) will upgrade the Banner system this spring. The MyUNM portal will also be upgraded as part of this project. MyUNM will be unavailable from Friday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. through Sunday, Feb. 14 at 12 p.m.
The Banner system upgrade will take place during Spring Break 2010, with Banner, LoboWeb, and other ERP-related components unavailable starting Friday, Mar. 12 at 5 p.m. Banner will be fully upgraded, online, and available for use by Thursday, Mar. 18 at 8 a.m. During the upgrade period, however, other major systems such as e-mail, calendaring, operational reporting, library services, WebCT, and the MyUNM portal will be available for use.
In addition to the upgrade outage, MyUNM will be placed into read-only mode from Wednesday, Feb. 10 from 6 a.m. through Friday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m., in preparation for the upgrade. During this time, changes made to MyUNM Group Studio and Course Studio will not be saved. However, LoboWeb, WebCT, and e-mail will continue to function normally during this time.
Additional details and information will be forthcoming over the next several weeks. UNM departments wishing to have an informal presentation regarding the upgrade can contact Nancy Middlebrook, Banner 8 Functional Lead, at ndm@unm.edu.
To view additional information on available functions, to view project updates, or for general information on the Banner 8 system upgrade, visit IT, or contact IT Customer Support Services at 277-5757.
For a complete list of MyUNM functions affected by the read-only mode, the portal upgrade, or for general information on the Banner 8 upgrade, visit http://it.unm.edu/erp or contact IT Customer Support Services at 277-5757.
Media Contact: Vanessa Baca, (505) 277-0987; e-mail: vjbaca1@unm.edu
UNM research injects millions of dollars into New Mexico’s economy. It also provides the university’s students with valuable hands-on training as early as freshman year. Marla Wyche-Hall of UNM’s University College will discuss the importance of engaging undergraduates in research during the next installment of UNM Parent Talk on Wednesday, Feb. 3, at 6 p.m.
Photo: Marla Wyche-Hall
“Participating in research projects and conferences could lead to work opportunities, advanced research opportunities, graduate school possibilities, and offers great networking with faculty and staff on campus and beyond,” Wyche-Hall said.
Wyche-Hall coordinates University College’s Research Quest and Undergraduate Research and Creativity Conference, events designed to motivate students to engage in peer-reviewed research. Students gain presentation and speaking experience and are eligible for cash prizes.
Gaining research experience is critical to earning prestigious scholarships. Kiyoko Simmons, University College’s scholarship coordinator, will also be a presenter.
Parents, families and students are invited to attend the monthly Parent Talks, sponsored by UNM’s Dean of Students, Parent Relations, Parent Association and Extended University. Light refreshments will be served.
Parent Talks are held the first Wednesday of each month in the Dean of Students Conference Room, 2nd floor of the Student Services Building (main campus).
Parking is $1.75 per hour in the Cornell Parking Structure near Central and Cornell NE. To get to the Student Services Center (SSC) from the Cornell Parking Structure walk north on Cornell Mall. Pass by Popejoy Hall and the Student Union (SUB). At the SUB’s north end, go east to the SSC.
To view past presentations and for more information, visit Parent Talk, Parent Talks.
The University of New Mexico Anderson School of Management Foundation Board has announced its 2010 Hall of Fame inductees. The inductees are: Henry A. Alaniz (MBA, 1996), Carol Mayo Cochran (BBA, 1984), and James Lawrence Novak, (MBA, 1996).
“These candidates are selected for their professional success, contribution to community involvement, and an ongoing commitment to continuing education,” said Anderson Foundation Board Advancement Committee Chair Sheri Milone. “This year we received nominations from an extremely talented pool of business leaders making the selection process very difficult. They were all very deserving, but these three candidates came to the top of the committee’s list.”
The Anderson Foundation Board will also recognize two young alumni under the age of 40 - Dr. Carolyn Massiah (BBA, 1998) and Dr. Rob Melendez (MBA, 1998) - who have already distinguished themselves early in their careers and show promise of continued growth in the years ahead.
“This annual tradition allows us to celebrate the very best the Anderson School of Management has to offer,” says Anderson Foundation Board Chair Debbie Gorenz. “And it confirms what we already know, that Anderson graduates are making a difference in New Mexico and beyond.”
Professor Catherine Roster is the recipient of the 2010 Faculty Community Leadership Award. All full-time faculty members are eligible and must have demonstrated leadership in enhancing the Anderson School’s visibility and relations with the business community by creating connections, providing leadership and being actively involved.
“Our faculty members are the foundation of our students’ success, and some achieve a very high standard for community engagement, as well,” said Anderson Dean Douglas M. Brown. “This award is an important way to recognize those multi-talented faculty leaders.”
The first ever Distinguished Service Award will go to Michael Gallegos, President and CEO of American Property Management Corp. This award honors a non-Anderson graduate who has displayed exceptional interest, dedication and/or service to the Anderson School.
The honorees will be recognized at the 21st Anniversary Hall of Fame reception and dinner on March 9, from 6 to 9 p.m. on UNM’s main campus in the Student Union Building.
Corporate sponsorship opportunities are available ranging from lead sponsorship level of $5,000 to table sponsors at $700. Individual tickets are $75. To make reservations or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities, call the Anderson School of Management Development Office at (505) 277-6413 or e-mail, armijo@mgt.unm.edu by Friday, Feb. 26, 2010.
Media Contact: Leslie Venzuela, (505) 277-7117; e-mail: venzuela@mgt.unm.edu
The Center for Participatory Research with the Clinical and Translational Science Center will host its 2010 Community Engagement and Research Seminar Series beginning Feb. 10. Seminars are held from 3 to 5 p.m. in the Health Sciences Center Domenici Center rm. 3010. Panel presentations will be followed by dialogue among participants.
Feb. 10: Institutional Review Board Issues and Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR)
Panelists: Andrew Sussman, Steve Adelshaim, Gayle Dine’Chacon, and UNM-HSC HRRC Chair, Mark Holdsworth and staff.
March 31: Health Impact Assessment and CBPR
Panelists: Tim Keller, Emily Pilch, George Schroeder, Kristine Suozzi, Victoria Sanchez and Rey Garduno.
April 30: Winning Big Through Mutual Partnerships
Day-long Community Engagement Workshop, hosted by MPH Program with CPR co-sponsorship, Room TBA.
June 3: Community Based Participatory Research and Health Policy Outcomes
Presentation by Meredith Minkler, U.C. Berkeley. Co-sponsored by RWJF-UNM Center for Health Policy, Room TBA
If past records regarding periods of warming and cooling climate are an accurate indication of weather patterns, then the southwestern United States is likely headed into a period of severe long-term drought say researchers at the University of New Mexico in new research published in the February issue of Nature Geoscience. Variable winter moisture, or the lack thereof in the southwestern United States, is linked to rapid glacial climate shifts say Yemane Asmerom and Victor Polyak, researchers in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department at the University of New Mexico.
Photo: Researchers Victor Polyak and Yemane Asmerom review data.
The research, funded by the National Science Foundation, indicates increased winter precipitation in the southwestern United States is associated with cooling in the Northern Hemisphere that’s attributed to a shift southward in the polar jet stream which adjusts the position of the winter storm track over North America. Conversely, when the jet stream shifts north, winter storm patterns cause the southwestern United States to receive less moisture in the future.
“The research fits together very nicely,” said Asmerom. “Cooling and warming in the northern hemisphere leads to concurrent latitudinal displacement of both the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) and the polar jet stream. The data are consistent with modern evidence for a northward shift of the polar jet stream in response to warming. This could lead to increasingly arid conditions in the southwestern United States in the future. The research is important because it shows what the impact of global climate change at a regional scale can be and underscores the need to build capacity to deal with possible dramatic changes in precipitation.”
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Researchers Victor Polyak (l.) and Yemane Asmerom review data off a computer. |
Asmerom and Polyak, along with Stephen Burns from the University of Massachusetts, conducted the studies from stalagmite samples taken from a kilometer deep inside the Ft. Stanton Cave near Capitan, N.M. in Lincoln County where the cave climate is stable with 100 percent relative humidity year-round, which is makes possible to interpret the isotope data in the stalagmite as record of past climate change. The stalagmite grew continuously for 45,000 years. They obtained nearly 70 high-precision uranium-series dates using a new multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer, with typical age uncertainties of less than one percent.
Climate fluctuations, known as Dansgaard—Oescher (DO) events, which are warm events and Heinrich events, which were cold reversals, first shown in Greenland ice cores, are present in the stalagmite record, which grew between 56,000 to 11,000 years ago.. During DO events, both the ITCZ and the polar jet stream move northward leading to drier conditions in the southwestern U.S.
During HEs the ITCZ and the polar jet stream moves southward The strength of winter storms in North America depends on the position of the polar jet stream. Colder than normal polar temperatures push the jet stream further south resulting in higher levels of Pacific-based precipitation as well as higher annual precipitation and warm temperatures push the jet stream further north leading to reduction in winter precipitation and arid conditions in the southwest U.S. These changes in the stalagmite are expressed as changes in the oxygen and carbon isotope ratios. The researchers estimate up to 75 percent change in the winter moisture budget during the rapid DO and HEs excursions. Currently the annual recharge consists of about 68 percent from summer monsoon and 32 percent from Pacific-sourced winter precipitation.
“Whether one is convinced of global warming and climate change or not, given the enormous stakes involved, no one can deny the need to study the issue” continued Asmerom. “This is the greatest scientific question and potentially the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced. The resulting changes could be very profound, especially in moisture stressed regions like ours. We could be in for a severe sustained drought unlike anything seen for the past 125,000 years. This project was like a good detective story: initial tell-tell signs, an excellent plot and a dramatic ending. We are fortunate to be part of this great research enterprise”.
The new state-of–the-art instrumentation at Asmerom’s Radiogenic Isotope Laboratory in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences has opened new possibilities for climate and environmental research, including obtaining precise record of past climate change. Previously, Polyak and Asmerom utilized the new instrumentation to date the Grand Canyon, which they found to be much older than previously thought.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
Enrollment at the University of New Mexico has continued to rise, thanks to redesigned processes and university-wide collaboration. As of today, 25,971 students are enrolled at the Albuquerque campus, a 7.42 percent increase over the same period last year. Classes began Tuesday, Jan. 19.
Working with academic units across campus, the Division of Enrollment Management deployed several initiatives to make processes from admission to graduation smoother and simpler for students at UNM.
Students have more convenient ways to get help through UNM All Access, including a call center and live online chat with student support experts.
The Office of the Registrar is working with all colleges to help students better plan their class schedules and track progress toward graduation. This suite of initiatives includes user-friendly online degree progress reports, and location-sensitive scheduling so students won't have to rush across campus between classes.
Ongoing initiatives include two One-Stop centers streamlining admissions, registration and financial aid, revitalized recruitment strategies, quicker application turn-around, and intensive communication campaigns to increase retention.
Enrollment at branch campuses also grew substantially: Valencia is up 23.44 percent, Taos 13.21 percent, Gallup 9.68 percent and Los Alamos 4.42 percent.
Media Contact: Sari Krosinsky, (505) 277-1583; e-mail: michal@unm.edu
The UNM Center for Advanced Research Computing (CARC) is holding an open house on Monday, Jan. 25, to showcase new 3D visualization, supercomputing, and videoconferencing capabilities of the Center. The open house at the Center, located in the Galles Building at 1601 Central NE, begins at 2:15 p.m. and will continue through 5 p.m.
Image: From film "Arrow to the Sun,” created by Hue Walker, UNM ARTS Lab.
Access to the event is through the doors on the SE corner of the building. Additionally, arrangements have been made for parking without special permit in the CARC lots off Ash St., on the west side of the building.
The open house will include tours of the CARC state-of-the-art machine room and 3D stereographic visualization/Gateway videoconferencing room, Visualization Lab, ARTS Lab (next door to the CARC), and the UNM Cancer Center Shared Resource for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology.
“We are very excited to add the Gateway 3D visualization capability to our Center,” said Susan Atlas, director, CARC. “This will enable UNM researchers and students to analyze and interact with their data generated on supercomputers at the CARC and the New Mexico Computing Applications Center in new and creative ways, and will allow real-time data-sharing and teleconferencing for research and cross-disciplinary collaborations around the state and the nation.”
There will be a number of demonstrations including:
Satellite Visualization – Three-dimensional simulations provide new perspectives that aid our understanding of complex systems. In this demonstration created using the Digital Skies system at ARTS Lab, viewers gain a better understanding of the number of man-made objects above us in orbit every day. Created by David Beining; UNM ARTS Lab using Digital Skies software
Nanomachine Visualization – In this demonstration, the viewer can move through a simulated nanomachine, visualized at the atomic scale. Nanomaterials have distinctive properties that we are just beginning to understand, and this demonstration shows ways the viewer can observe a machine that is too small to be seen by the human eye. Created by David Beining; UNM ARTS Lab using Digital Skies software
Toma Patient Simulator – This is a 3D simulation for training emergency medical responders trainees who must take immediate action to diagnose and treat a virtual patient. The demonstration involves a car accident scenario where the trainees must evaluate the injuries and determine the appropriate course of action such as applying bandages to wounds or administering medication, while constantly reassessing physical feedback from vital signs such as blood pressure and respiration. The simulation uses Flatland, a virtual environment development tool that makes it possible for multiple participants to interact with alternative scenarios in real time. Created by Tom Caudell, Dale Alverson, Victor Vergara; Project TOUCH
Excerpt from the film, “Arrow to the Sun” – This clip is an example of locally-created 3D content for immersive media, based on a story from pan-pueblo mythology. Created by Hue Walker; UNM ARTS Lab
There will be Fulldome and motion capture demonstrations; at the UNM ARTS Lab. Join us for the opportunity to experience the full range of capabilities of the Center.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
A memorial service will be held for former University of New Mexico Biology Professor Dr. William C. Martin on Saturday, Jan. 23 at 10 a.m. in the University Chapel at French Mortuary located at 1111 University Blvd., N.E. Martin came to Albuquerque in 1958 and was a professor and curator of the Herbarium at the University of New Mexico for 31 years. His many graduate students affectionately referred to him as "PC" (Plant Chief). Martin died Monday, Jan. 18, 2010 at his home. He was 86.
Photo: Dr. William C. Martin
Martin's time as a professor included a two-year sabbatical as the Curator of Botany at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, where he worked with the native plants of Hawaii. Martin co-authored the Flora of New Mexico and several other books on the wildflowers of New Mexico. He was involved in a number of community projects, which included being a member and chairman of the Advisory Committee for the planning and development of the Albuquerque Bio-Park, and as a member of the planning and development Advisory Council for La Semillia.
Born in Dayton, Ky. On Nov. 27, 1923, Martin spent most of his early life in Ripley County, Ind. He served in the U.S. Army as an anti-tank gunner and field lineman during WWII in the Rhineland and Central Europe Campaigns as part of the 97th Infantry Division, 389th Field Artillery. After the war, Martin received his Bachelors degree from Purdue University, then earned his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees at Indiana University.
Martin is survived by his wife of 62 years, Evelyn Hastings Martin; sons, William David Martin and wife, Dorothy, James Edward Martin and wife, Lynda; daughter, Dr. Barbara Ann Baderman and husband, Daniel; grandsons, James E. Martin, Jr., David Allen Martin and wife, Elizabeth, David Daves and wife, Christy and daughter, Haley; and granddaughter, Leslie and husband, Ron Cook and their sons, Martin and Kayden. He was preceded in death by his parents and one brother, Eugene Martin.
Family and friends may visit French Mortuary – University Location, Friday, Jan. 22, 2010, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Services will be held Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010, at 10 a.m., at French Mortuary – University Chapel, with entombment to follow at Sunset Memorial Park, 924 Menaul Blvd. NE. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made to the American Cancer Society, 10501 Montgomery Blvd. NE, suite 300, 87111, or to St. John's Methodist Church, 2626 Arizona NE, 87110.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome has inducted Jerome Romero, a principal investigator at the Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse and Addictions (CASAA), into the Tom and Linda Daschle Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame honors the heroes living with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and the families, advocates and researchers devoted to preventing and treating the disorder.
Photo: Jerome Romero
Established in 2005, the Hall of Fame was named for former U.S. Senator Tom Daschle and his wife, Linda Hall Daschle, as a tribute to their commitment and leadership in the fight to prevent alcohol-related birth defects and their long-standing support of NOFAS.
CASAA investigators do extensive research on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. They have federal research grants funding projects nationally and internationally. As part of their efforts in this field, they are actively involved with the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (NOFAS).
For most of his career, Romero has focused on helping individuals with disabilities. Since 1995, Romero has served as the statewide director of the New Mexico Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Prevention Program Director, and he is a pioneer in FASD peer education.
As director, Romero has developed many FASD prevention activities and produced a number of public campaign slogans, accompanying public messages, and educational materials to educate women of child-bearing age on the dangers of drinking alcohol while pregnant. He travels around New Mexico working with a wide variety of stakeholders, high school students, prenatal clinics, foster care organizations, and community health workers.
Seven years ago, Romero began working with the FASD Center for Excellence, where he generously, and successfully, shared his project ideas and materials with other FASD organizations throughout the United States.
While Romero says all of his work is rewarding, he says his most beneficial project has been his FASD peer-education project in which he works with high school girls who have been pregnant or are pregnant and are trying to finish high school. Through this mission he works to convey the FASD prevention message and teaches the girls to warn their peers on the effects of drinking alcohol while pregnant.
“Through that process, not only do the peer trainers become educated on the importance of not drinking during pregnancy, but their message is then heard by many more high school students than I could ever reach personally” said Romero. “The message that is conveyed peer to peer carries a very special power.”
Romero is currently the Chairman of the National Association of State FASD Coordinators, a group under the FASD Center for Excellence. He also sits on the Center’s Expert Panel on FASD.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The 2010 New Mexico Legislative Session is underway in Santa Fe. This year the Legislature has to tackle the task of balancing New Mexico’s budget in this current economic crisis and Governor Bill Richardson’s State of the State address set the tone for the 30-day session. On this week’s “New Mexico in Focus” correspondent Gwyneth Doland discusses the session with Senator Rod Adair (R-Roswell), Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones (R-Albuquerque), Rep. Karen Giannini (D-Albuquerque) and Senator Eric Griego (D-Albuquerque).
This week’s episode of “New Mexico in Focus” will air at a special time on Friday, Jan. 22, to accommodate the station’s participation in the “Hope for Haiti Now” earthquake relief telethon. “New Mexico in Focus” will air at 9 p.m. instead of 7 p.m., and “Bill Moyers” and “NOW” will be pre-empted this week. The show will air at its usual time of 6:30 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 24.
Hosted by Gene Grant, columnist for the Weekly Alibi, “New Mexico in Focus” takes a multi-layered look at social, political, economic, health, education, and arts issues and explores them in-depth, with a critical eye to give them context beyond the “news of the moment.”
On a special edition of “The Line,” Grant will hold a roundtable consisting of former New Mexico lawmakers to take a critical look at what the Legislature will have to face this year.
Joining Grant will be:
• Pauline Eisenstadt, Fmr. Senator & Representative, Corrales
• Dan Foley, Fmr. House Minority Whip, Roswell
• Rory Ogle, Former Representative, Albuquerque
• Richard Romero, Fmr. Senate President Pro Tem, Albuquerque
Then a special segment will showcase the effort that a group of up and coming musicians are taking to keep the Duke City’s rich jazz legacy alive.
New Mexico in Focus can also be seen on KNME’s Digital Channel 9.1 on Saturdays at 5 p.m. Additionally, viewers can also watch it online at: KNME.
“New Mexico in Focus” is produced by Kevin McDonald and Kathy Wimmer and closed captioning has been made possible by a gift from Mrs. Elspeth G. Bobbs.
Media Contact: Evy Todd, (505) 277-1812; e-mail: etodd@knme.org
The Health Sciences Center web site is now smart-phone compatible with a new version of the site designed for mobile devices. The upgrade enables HSC faculty and staff members to quickly navigate and effectively access important site information while “on the fly.”
The mobile site will work on the top handheld devices on the market today, including: Blackberry Storm and Curve, Motorola’s Droid, and Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch. The new site marks the Health Science Library and Informatics Center’s increased emphasis on using mobile technologies to help students, faculty and staff find the information and resources they need.
Links to the UNM directory, HSC Calendar, classroom schedules, HSC webmail, social media, library resources (such as the online catalog, PubMed, CINAHL and Dynamed) and others are live and active. Future additions will include interactive campus maps and more library resources for faculty and students.
The mobile-site URL can be found at: Health Mobile Site. For more information, call 272-3683.
A collaboration among researchers at the University of New Mexico, Northwestern University and Sandia National Labs has resulted in the largest scale study ever done on what many consider an important part of the future of computing – the virtualization of parallel supercomputing systems.
Photo: Associate Professor Patrick Bridges
As part of this collaboration, Peter Dinda professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Northwestern Univeristy’s McCormick School of Engineering and his graduate student Jack Lange led the development of a virtual machine monitor called ‘Palacios.’ Palacios’ development involves an extensive collaboration with Patrick Bridges associate professor of Computer Science at the University of New Mexico.
The system was tested Dec. 3 on Sandia’s world-class Red Storm supercomputer. Sandia researchers led by Kevin Pedretti assisted in adapting and optimizing Palacios for the Red Storm environment directed the testing effort.
Results show that the team successfully virtualized Red Storm using the Palacios virtual machine monitor and ran communication intensive, fine-grain parallel benchmarks of critical interest to Sandia with extremely high performance. Testing went up to 4,096 nodes, making this the largest-scale study by at least two orders of magnitude.
“Virtualizing a parallel supercomputer is particularly challenging because of the need to support extremely low latency, high-bandwidth communication among thousands of virtual machines,” Dinda says. “Supercomputing users and the owners of supercomputers will not tolerate any performance compromises because the machines are so expensive to acquire and maintain, but, on the other hand, they also want access to the benefits of virtualization.”
A virtual machine monitor (VMM) works by separating a computer’s operating system from its hardware. This indirection exposes a range of benefits. For example, a VMM allows an operating system from one machine to be run on another. (If it needs more memory for example.) It can also allow one machine to simultaneously run multiple operating systems, and it is possible to migrate running operating systems from one computer to another.
In the case of supercomputing, the VMM also acts as a translator between a user’s software and the highly specialized hardware and software environments of the system, which could potentially allow more researchers to use supercomputers to solve complex problems.
With more than 38,000 processors, Red Storm is a massively parallel processing supercomputer that was uniquely designed to support modeling and simulation of complex problems in nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship. It is currently the 17th fastest supercomputer in the world, with a theoretical peak performance of 284 trillion floating point operations per second in a relatively compact 3,500 square foot footprint.
Virtualization on such a machine is important because it will allow more researchers to run scientific computing and simulation programs without reconfiguring their software to the machine’s specific hardware and software environments. In this context, thousands of virtual machines must cooperate in order to solve large problems. But because the system is extremely expensive to run, any VMM must have low overhead, which is magnified through the fine-grain interactions among the virtual machines.
At these massive scales, the Palacios virtual machine monitor had a measured overhead of less than 5 percent. The results clearly indicate that it is possible to bring the benefits of virtualization to even the largest computers in the world without performance compromises.
Virtualization is big business, with the market research and analysis firm IDC forecasting annual revenues to grow from $5.5 billion in 2007 to $11.7 billion in 2011.
“If we can virtualize supercomputers without performance compromises, we will make them easier to use and easier to manage, generally increasing the utility of these very large national infrastructure investments,” Dinda says. “Large-scale virtualization also opens new directions for research to improve the performance and utility of supercomputers,” adds Bridges.
“The end goal is to provide a more flexible supercomputer environment to end users without sacrificing performance,” Pedretti says. “The successful experiments with Palacios on Red Storm demonstrate the feasibility of our approach, and we hope to incorporate this technology in future capability supercomputer platforms.”
Virtualization research at Northwestern and the University of New Mexico is primarily supported by the National Science Foundation, with seed funding from the U.S. Department of Energy via Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Jack Lange was partially supported through a Symantec Research Labs fellowship.
Virtualization research at Sandia is supported by Sandia’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program.
Researchers can learn more and download the latest version at: Palacios.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Distinguished Professor of History Paul Hutton will appear on the PBS program American Experience “Wyatt Earp,” on Monday, Jan. 25 from 9-10 p.m. on KNME-TV Channel 5. “Wyatt Earp” features interviews with Hutton and other biographers and historians of the American West to present a fresh take on an old legend.
Photo: Wyatt Earp
Hutton, who is teaching an upper division course on the Western Hero, has written extensively about Earp, especially about his portrayal in movies. His article, “Showdown at the Hollywood Corral,” garnered the Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy Museum. Hutton’s expertise on Earp was also featured on Investigating History on the History Channel.
“American Experience is the gold standard of historical documentary. Rob Rapley, who wrote, directed and produced the film, is great to work with. It is always a thrill to be on that series,” Hutton said, indicating that American Experience did a good job on an episode on Kit Carson.
Hutton said that PBS is coming on strong now on programs featuring Western American history at the same time that the History Channel is moving a different direction. “My interest is in how Hollywood has shaped our western past. I’ve been interested in Earp since I was a child seeing him portrayed on television. And it’s most interesting how little was known about him as a western character until Hollywood started making movies,” Hutton said.
The book “Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal” by Stuart Lake came out same year that Earp died. “The book was made into four movies, the best being ‘My Darling Clementine.’ That converted him into the quintessential western lawman,” Hutton said.
Program Brief...
“Wyatt Earp,” the latest in the stable of critically acclaimed Wild West biographies by American Experience. Previous entries include Annie Oakley, Jesse James, Buffalo Bill and Kit Carson.
“A lot of people feel strongly that Wyatt Earp was either hero or villain. The real story is a lot more interesting than that,” Rapley said.
Wyatt Earp has been portrayed in countless movies and television shows by some of Hollywood’s greatest actors, including Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart and, more recently, Kevin Costner, but these popular fictions often belie the complexities and flaws of a man whose life is a lens on politics, justice and economic opportunity on the American frontier.
As a young man, Earp was a caricature of the Western lawman, spending his days drinking in saloons, gambling and visiting brothels. He gained notoriety as the legendary gunman in the shootout at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Ariz., but shortly after his death in 1929, distressed Americans down on their luck transformed Earp into a folk hero.
“We think of him as the ultimate example of a man controlling his own destiny. Although there’s some truth to that, the fact is he spent almost all of his life being tossed around by the vast forces that were reshaping the West,” Rapley said.
American Experience Executive Producer Mark Samels said, “How the West was won is one of our greatest American narratives,” “In the tradition of “Annie Oakley,” “Buffalo Bill” and our other Western histories, “Wyatt Earp” examines an ordinary man’s role in that larger-than-life story, and how he became the legend that lives on today.”
■ The web site American Experience provides students, educators and lifelong learners with an ever-growing library of free and trusted American history resources. More than 1,650 features, including primary source documents, video clips, photographs, timelines and bibliographies, are indexed online and connected to dozens of standard U.S. history teaching topics.
Each Web page serves as a permanent educational resource, complete with electronic teacher’s guides featuring lesson plans and discussion guidelines. American Experience’s popular Website for kids, “WayBack,” offers engaging resources for pre-teen kids to learn about history.
Don’t miss selected PBS programs streaming free online, the day after broadcast, on the PBS Video Portal.
American Experience “Wyatt Earp” will be available from PBS Home Video; 800-531-4727, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Alfred Mathewson, School of Law professor and interim director of Africana Studies, was awarded by the MLK Multicultural Board during Martin Luther King Day events. He, Amy Biehl Charter High School and former Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Jack Bobroff received “The Keep the Dream Alive Award,” awarded to individuals in the community that are helping to keep the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. alive and promote his legacy through their work in the community.
Photo: Alfred Mathewson
The MLK Multicultural Board also presented 32 college scholarships to high school students who've demonstrated their understanding of King's values.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Teaching art, like making art, requires more than an accumulation of skills. For students in UNM’s Art Education Program, “we stress making art that’s relevant in their lives, that expresses their own feelings and ideas,” said Nancy Pauly, art education associate professor and gallery coordinator.
The Masley Gallery exhibits the work of students and faculty, inviting art teachers and school-age children to display their work in special shows and hosting traveling exhibits of interest to the community. The gallery ended the fall semester with an exhibit of final work by graduating master’s students.
The program offers three master’s examination options and a thesis option. Most of those graduating in the fall opted to submit artwork for the studio thesis option with a paper describing their process, influences and how art-making shapes their work with students.
Among them was Troy Meek, already a widely exhibited professional potter. Beverly LaZar, graduate assistant to the gallery, said Meek sees parallels between his studio work in ceramics and his teaching. For example, he compares adapting techniques for different types of clay and different learning styles.
Other students completing the studio option were Juliette Beck, Robert Carr, Jill Dooner and Kelly Eckel.
Siyoung Lee chose the theoretical option, submitting a publishable paper. Pauly said he researched the connections between pottery design and cultural purpose and philosophy in the Korean tea ceremony throughout history.
Taking the curricular option, Nikki Turman submitted a complete curriculum with a syllabus, detailed lesson plans, assignments and examples of student drawings.
Pauly said that while most art education programs focus on publishing and research, UNM additionally bridges studio art, art history and teaching methods. Students simultaneously learn to work in and teach many art forms. They apply their knowledge through community outreach, working with at-risk youth, schools, community programs and museums.
LaZar said UNM’s program differs from her experience in a traditional studio art program as an undergraduate, characterized by “taking a position and defending it.” “This is more open to your personal process of working, more of an exploration,” she said.
This spring, the Masley Gallery presents a faculty exhibit titled, Faculty Invitational Exhibition 2010, Jan. 29-Feb. 19, with an opening reception on Friday, Jan. 29, 5-7 p.m.; two graduating master’s exhibitions, March 22-April 2 and April 9-23; and a final exhibit of all graduating master’s and undergraduate students, April 26-May 15.
The gallery is open Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. or by appointment. Call Dolores Mendoza at (505) 277-4112.
Story by Sari Krosinsky
The legislative season is here, and New Mexico is faced with difficult decisions. With a state budget falling from $6 billion to $5 billion, it’s unlikely UNM will emerge untouched. To the legislators and everyone at UNM working to preserve the integrity of higher education in the state, thank you. While hard times require some sacrifices, these can be mitigated by creativity and compromise. The UNM Staff Council’s priority is to preserve the services the university offers by protecting the workforce vital to providing them.
Photo: Elisha Allen, Staff Council President
• Accessible and affordable services: Staff support the university’s education, research and patient care missions year-round. State mandated tuition credits force UNM to shoulder more than its fair share of the burden of balancing the state budget and negatively impact its mission. The university may have to bear cuts or raise tuition, but these should be kept to a minimum and not be mandated by a tuition credit.
• High quality program priorities: Mandatory across-the-board cuts limit the flexibility to make strategic spending decisions to protect program quality. UNM regents and administrators, in consultation with student, faculty and staff leadership, should determine how to best meet budget shortages in ways that minimize the impact to core services.
• Protect the workforce: Quality services depend on staff to perform them. The hiring pause has helped to avoid layoffs, but has depleted a workforce that did not have redundancy to begin with. Without adequate staff, class scheduling, student advisement, facility maintenance, faculty and student support, and other services cannot happen. Ultimately, teaching and learning suffers. Further staff cuts impact services needed by students, patients and the state’s long term economic recovery.
• No furloughs or salary reductions: Forced furloughs and salary reductions are unnecessary. New Mexico can balance its budget through revenue enhancement strategies, prudent use of one-time funds and project prioritization. As we move into an additional year without a COLA (cost of living adjustment) increase, all strategies should hold harmless low- and middle-income staff.
• Protect retirement: The security of employees’ retirement is an essential benefit for recruiting and retaining quality faculty and staff. The Staff Council supports a .75 percent legislative increase to the Educational Retirement Board and opposes de facto salary reductions caused by increasing employee contributions, another hardship to staff coping with additional duties and flat wages in tough budgetary times.
• Maintain facilities: 2010 General Obligation Bond legislation for higher education teaching facilities and full formula funding for utilities and facility maintenance are important for a safe and effective work and learning environment.
Successfully weathering this recession requires some sacrifices. However, harm to the staff and the institution can be minimized by a strategic budgetary process focusing on realistic use of staff and dollar resources combined with project prioritization to protect core functions.
Story by Elisha Allen, Staff Council President
The UNM Art Education Program presents its Faculty Invitational Exhibition 2010 opening Jan. 29 at Masley Gallery on the UNM Campus. Also, join the artists for an opening reception with refreshments as part of the exhibition's opening on Friday, Jan. 29, from 5 to 7 p.m.
Image: Detail of a Mosaic Table by Lisa Domenici (MA '05).
Housed in the UNM College of Education, the Art Education faculty are a dynamic group of teachers, researchers and working artists. Everyone is cordially invited to attend this exhibition featuring the artwork of current full and part time faculty as well as emeriti faculty.
Masley Gallery is located in Masley Hall on UNM campus. Gallery hours are Monday – Friday, 11 - 4. The exhibition is ongoing through March 5, 2010. For more information contact, arted@unm.edu, call 277-4112 or visit: Art Education Program.
For a related story visit: Masley Gallery Bridges Art, Education
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
World of Wellness pass offers best of both worlds
Recreational Services is once again offering its W.O.W. or World of Wellness Pass again this spring. UNM faculty and staff are benefits eligible to take advantage of both the E-Fitness (employee only) and “Works” (UNM & community) program by using your tuition remission.
Now is a great time to use your tuition remission. Sign up at Recreational Services today and enjoy more than 30 classes a week. For more information visit: World of Wellness.
* Sign up and get a fitness assessment!
NOTE: You may only use your tuition remission benefit for these two combined fitness programs in the W.O.W. pass (not the passes individually).
On Saturday, Jan. 23 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Peace and Justice Center, located at Harvard and Silver SE, the Haitian dance group Racine Kreyol will be hosting an event for donations while also collecting dried goods and survival items to send to Haiti. Come celebrate Haitian culture and arts while supporting the earthquake relief effort.
Kiley Guyton Acosta, doctoral candidate in Caribbean and Brazilian Literature in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, said, “We need help in the form of dried bagged grain and beans, organic seeds, first aid kits and survival items such as blankets, condoms, baby bottles, cereal and formula, iodine tablets, reusable plastic dishes, ramen noodles, backpacks, flashlights, batteries, candles, matches, tents, tarps and more.”
She said they will also be accepting monetary donations of $5 or $10 with all proceeds go toward sending a filled bus of supplies to Haiti.
They cannot accept canned goods or clothes, she said.
“We will have Haitian food, drumming, dancing and art at this family-friendly event, so bring a box of items, a bowl to eat, and your cheerful and giving spirits,” she said.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Vice President for Research Julia Fulghum announced today the appointment of Professor Andrew L. Ross as the new Director of Special Science, Engineering, and Policy Research Initiatives in the Office of the Vice President for Research. In this role, Ross will oversee several strategic research initiatives in the sciences and engineering, including the University Strategic Partnerships (USP) program with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) of the Department of Defense.
Photo: Professor Andrew L. Ross
Ross will begin working immediately with an expanded UNM DTRA faculty executive committee on a six-month transition plan. The ultimate goal is to have changes fully implemented by the start of the new fiscal year. He replaces Frank Gilfeather, who has overseen the UNM DTRA program since its inception.
“I am looking forward to working with Andy and the faculty executive committee through this transition period, and am excited about the many new opportunities we have moving forward,” said Fulghum. “I also want to thank Dr. Gilfeather for establishing the DTRA program at UNM. As we move through the transition, he will no doubt continue to be a valuable resource to the DTRA faculty executive committee.”
Ross is currently the Director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Policy and professor of Political Science at UNM. He is also the founder and chair of the New Mexico Nuclear Study Group. Ross joined UNM in 2005 after spending 16 years on the faculty of the Naval War College. He has held research fellowships at Cornell, Princeton, Harvard, the University of Illinois, and the Naval War College. He earned his Ph.D. at Cornell University.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Group to perform at ACDA Conference in Denver
The UNM Concert Choir, under the direction of Bradley Ellingboe, is singing at the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) conference in Denver next month. Before leaving, the choir is giving a "bon voyage" concert on Sunday, Feb. 21 at 2 p.m. at St. John’s United Methodist Church, 2626 Arizona NE. The event is free and open to the public; however donations to benefit the chorus will be accepted.
Photo: Bradley Ellingboe
“We are proud to represent New Mexico at the convention. To be chosen to sing at it is a high honor. Before leaving, we wanted the opportunity to share the music with the people at home who have supported UNM Chorus and helped send us there,” Ellingboe said.
The group departs on Tuesday, Feb. 23 and will perform in Farmington. On Thursday, Feb. 25, they will perform at the conference.
“On Thursday evening, we're giving a concert at a large church in Denver, to be followed by a reception hosted by the UNM Alumni Chapter in Denver,” Ellingboe said.
For more information, contact Bradley Ellingboe 505-277-4429, or brell@unm.edu.
The 2010 version of the UNM Visitor's Guide, designed and published by University Communication and Marketing, is now available. This free guide contains a compilation of information about UNM in one convenient 8.5x11 booklet.
Topics include background about the University, information on academic programs, campus life, admissions, recruitment, financial aid, athletics, arts, the SUB, libraries, parking, the city of Albuquerque and more. In addition, there is a campus phone directory, walking tour and two-page map spread.
If you need help publicizing the University of New Mexico, this publication will certainly assist you. Each box contains 150 booklets.
To reserve your booklets or for more information, call the UNM Welcome Center at 277-1989, or e-mail the department at: ucam@unm.edu or Jane Everhart at jever@unm.edu.
Dean Doug Brown recently announced the UNM Anderson School of Management has been awarded a $1.25 million grant to help further instill a high standard of ethics in students attending the school. Through the grant, the Anderson School becomes part of a new initiative involving eight universities across four states that will collaborate on developing programs designed to instill a high standard of ethics in business school students.
Photo: Doug Brown, dean, Anderson School of Management, speaks via video conference following announcement of $1.25 million business ethics grant.
The initial grant and ongoing support for the initiative is provided by the Daniels Fund, a private foundation established by cable television pioneer Bill Daniels, who was widely recognized for his ethics and integrity in business.
The Bill Daniels Professors of Business Ethics, Linda and O.C. Ferrell, were instrumental in bringing the grant to Anderson. The UNM initiative will available for any interested parties and the Ferrell’s will also discuss how the University of New Mexico Bill Daniels Principle based ethics program is focused on outreach to educational institutions throughout the state of New Mexico.
The initiative includes two universities with existing business ethics programs supported by the Daniels Fund: the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver, and the University of Wyoming College Of Business.
The other six universities will share equally in the $7.5 million initiative. The universities are Colorado State University, New Mexico State University, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, University of New Mexico, University of Northern Colorado and University of Utah.
Media Contact: Leslie Venzuela, (505) 277-7117; e-mail: venzuela@mgt.unm.edu
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the first graduating class of the University of New Mexico School of Law. To commemorate this anniversary, UNM School of Law Dean Kevin Washburn has announced the 60 for 60 project.
"The alumni and friends of this law school have helped to shape the legal landscape of New Mexico and this project is designed to capture the richness of the law school's history in the legal community,” says Washburn.
A 60 for 60 book will bring attention to the role the school has played in New Mexico and nationally by honoring the 60 most influential people, changes, events, legislative breakthroughs, accomplishments that have impacted or originated at the School of Law. Nominations for these 60 finalists are currently being accepted at the UNM School of Law 60 for 60 Web site, located at: 60 for 60.
Nominations are not limited to just individuals, but any transformative change that originated at the UNM School of Law. This includes laws that were passed, leaders at the school, and alumni who have impacted the legal world or New Mexico as a whole and more. Nominations should be between 250-500 words and photo submissions are welcome. The deadline for nominations is April 1.
For more information about the 60 for 60 project or nomination requirements, contact David Myers, UNM School of Law Archivist at 277-6796.
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
Optical refrigeration breakthrough promises a novel alternative to bulky mechanical cryo-coolers
Researchers at the University of New Mexico have established a new low in temperature cooling through laser cooling of solids to cryogenic temperatures. Under an AFOSR, MURI grant, a team led by UNM Professor, Mansoor Sheik-Bahae, created the first-ever all-solid-state cryocooler (temperatures that can only be obtained by liquefying gases and mechanical refrigerators) that can be used for a variety of applications ranging from cooling infrared sensors to superconducting electronics.
Photo: Students Denis Seletskiy and Seth Melgaard.
This work was just published in the January (online) issue of the Journal of Nature-Photonics. To view the paper visit: Laser cooling of solids to cryogenic temperatures.
Graduate students Denis Seletskiy and Seth Melgaard designed and performed the experiments at UNM's Department of Physics and Astronomy in collaboration with researchers from Los Alamos National Lab and the University of Pisa, Italy.
The consortium research project grew out of a collaboration with Los Alamos National Labs more than seven years ago. Laser cooling of solids, also known as "optical refrigeration", is the process of lowering the temperature of a solid by shining laser light on it. The heat is carried away from the material via fluorescence that follows the laser absorption.
Early experiments at Los Alamos back in 1995 led to a cooling of about 1 degree cooling. Subsequent improvements led to an absolute temperature of 208 Kelvin (K) or -65 degrees Celsius starting from room temperature. Further improvements, including extremely high-purity materials, together with gaining better insight into the physics of luminescent crystals have enabled the researchers at UNM to reach a new milestone by cooling to temperatures below what is achievable by standard thermoelectric (also known as Peltier) coolers.
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Students Denis Seletskiy and Seth Melgaard in the lab. The pair, along with Professor Mansoo Sheik-Bahae and other researchers made a promising breakthrough in optical refrigeration with a novel alternative to bulky mechanical cryo-coolers. |
“We obtained cooling down to 155 Kelvin (equivalent to -118 C or -180 F) from room temperature using optical refrigeration in a crystal containing Ytterbium ions. Ytterbium is an element from a group in the period table known as the rare-earths that are extremely efficient in their fluorescence, an essential requirement for optical refrigeration” said Sheik-Bahae. “We expect that material research may soon lead to temperatures dipping below 77K, the boiling point of liquid nitrogen, and in the future, maybe as low as 10K will be possible.”
To achieve their results, the scientists enhanced cooling efficiency by exploiting resonances in the absorption spectrum, growing pure crystals, delicate thermal load management and by trapping laser light in an optical cavity.
“We tune high power lasers to excite sharp resonances of Ytterbium ions sitting in a fluoride crystalline host –” explained Seletskiy. “We trap laser light by careful alignment of the optical cavity mirrors inside of a high vacuum chamber. A specially designed and coated sample chamber allows us to minimize parasitic heat load from the environment.
“We infer crystal temperature using a technique we developed that allows to measure temperature without making a contact with the sample, further avoiding unnecessary parasitic heat load on the sample. Combination of all of these ideas and tricks has allowed us to reach 155K, breaking ‘Peltier barrier.’
“We’ve set the bar high or low in this case,” said Sheik-Bahae. “We feel 100K is within reach and also 77K, the melting point of liquid nitrogen. In the end, it is primarily materials science that is allowing this breakthrough. Reaching those temperatures is achievable using high purity crystals.”
Further advances in this technology may lead to applications in cooling superconducting electronics, infrared and gamma-ray sensors. Many other novel applications where miniaturized cryocoolers are needed will also benefit from this technology. Previously, solid-state coolers, based on standard thermoelectric (Peltier) devices, have only been able to reach temperatures as low as 170K, however with minimal efficiency.
Sheik-Bahae and his team will continue collaborations with Professor Mauro Tonelli and his researchers at the University of Pisa in Italy as well as with Richard Epstein and Markus Hehlen of the Los Alamos National Lab, and Prof. Kevin Malloy from UNM to further this research towards achieving lower temperatures and developing the technology for practical, compact and efficient cryocoolers.
Media Contacts: UNM, Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu or
Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Maria Callier, (703) 696-7308; e-mail: maria.callier@afoser.af.mil
UNM students have organized a fundraising drive for the victims of the Haiti Earthquake through ASUNM Community Experience. They have partnered with Chartwells to have collection buckets at all food vendors in the Student Union Building and various locations around campus for cash, check, and Lobo Cash donations. One hundred percent of donations go directly to the American Red Cross for the Haiti Relief Fund.
Anyone wishing to get involved in this effort can e-mail, tce@unm.edu or can find the group on Facebook: UNM Haiti Earthquake Relief. Individuals may donate any amount of money and coins are welcome.
In response to the humanitarian crisis in Haiti, a group of University of New Mexico faculty will read great works of Haitian literature next week on campus in a faculty read-in to raise donations and awareness. The event takes place Wednesday, Jan. 20 through Friday, Jan. 22 from 12-1 p.m. at the modern art sculpture area, south of the Student Union Building on the UNM main campus.
Pamela Cheek, associate professor of French in Foreign Languages and Literatures, is organizing the event. She said, “The level of human suffering in Haiti as a result of the earthquake is beyond measure. Tens of thousands of people have already died and millions will suffer from shortages of water, food, shelter and medicine in the next months.”
The Faculty Read-In for Haitian Relief offers the Albuquerque community a reminder of the rich culture of Haiti. Haiti is the first nation to be built from a slave revolt. Despite being one of the poorest countries on earth, Haiti has produced scores of remarkable writers and artists who have offered moving images of courage, character and beauty to the world.
Student organizations collect donations at the event and urging people to give online or by texting "Haiti" to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross.
For more information, contact Cheek at pcheek@unm.edu or (505) 980-1401.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
The Africana Studies Program presents a series of events to celebrate Black History Month, beginning with the 25th Black History Month Kick-Off Brunch on Saturday, Jan. 30, at 11 a.m. in Student Union Building ballrooms A and B. The brunch features a lecture by award-winning playwright, actress and MacArthur Genius Grant winner Anna Deavere Smith, “Forty Years Wandering in the Academic Desert: Does Anyone See the Promised Land?” She will discuss equality and race issues in the academic community.
Photo: Anna Deavere Smith
Smith’s career covers mainstream culture as well as academia. Her work in the theater explores American character and multifaceted national identity. Her works include “Fires in the Mirror,” “Twilight: Los Angeles” and the current off-Broadway play “Let Me Down Easy.” She is also known for her film and television work, including a role on NBC’s “The West Wing.”
Brunch tickets are $25, available at unmtickets.com or by calling the UNM Ticket Office at (505) 925-5858 or (877) 664-8661.
Other Black History Month events include:
· UNM Africana Studies Day in Hobbs, Saturday, Feb. 6, 1 p.m., Booker T. Washington Elementary School, Hobbs, New Mexico.
· “A Message to Youth: From Pain to Power.” Sunday, Feb. 28, 4 p.m., UNM Continuing Education Building auditorium. Daniel Beaty shares his journey – growing up with a father who was a heroin addict and dealer and a brother addicted to crack cocaine – and how he discovered his purpose. Beaty has appeared on HBO’s “Def Poetry Jam” and BET’s “106 & Park.” Tickets for this all-ages show are $10 for adults or $5 for students, available from the UNM Ticket Office.
· Black History Poster Presentations by students in kindergarten through 12th grade, Sunday, Feb. 28, 3:30-6 p.m., UNM Continuing Education Building.
· Black Cultural Conference, “Many Roads, One Destination,” Thursday, March 4-Saturday, March 6, presented by UNM African American Student Services, UNM Africana Studies Program and the Office of African American Affairs.
Listen to a UNM podcast on Black History Month.
For updates and addition events visit: Black History Month. Contact Professor Sonia Rankin at sgrankin@unm.edu or (505) 277-3769.
Media Contact: Sari Krosinsky, (505) 277-1593; e-mail: michal@unm.edu
Next Parent Talk scheduled for Feb. 3
Some college students “stop out” for a year or more, straying from a degree path to seek self-discovery in a distant land. This can prove financially disastrous. Keeping adventurous trekkers on track is one goal of UNM’s Study Abroad and National Student Exchange programs.
Parents and students thronged to a recent Parent Talk presentation on popular study destinations. NSE Coordinator Robert Burford said, “This past academic year UNM placed more students than any other school to take part in the NSE program.”
Even for families on a limited budget, students yearning to paint a canvas on the streets of Rome or study international business in Hong Kong can realize their dream, Office of International Programs and Studies Advisor Lauren Fowler-Young said. Some students going abroad – and all on national exchange – pay UNM tuition. Financial aid, including the lottery scholarship, can be used nationally and internationally, except for work-study. Students can also apply for scholarships exclusively for study abroad.
Tuition for short-term programs may be more affordable, but factor in the cost of airfare, room and board. Most countries offer dorm or shared apartment rentals. Homestays are more common in the summer.
Foreign language is not always required. Students should work with UNM’s Latin American and Iberian Institute to attend programs in Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries; OIP advises for all other countries.
Some students go away for a summer or semester and come back wanting to go someplace for a year. The number of credits that will apply toward a UNM degree is capped, so it’s important to consult an academic advisor.
To participate, students should have a 3.0 grade point average and at least two semesters at UNM. Applications are due Feb. 15 for fall or year-long programs and Oct. 1 for the spring.
UNM’s National Student Exchange operates similarly to Study Abroad, Burford said. Often, parents encourage students to choose New Mexico for affordability. Taking part in an exchange offers students opportunities for personal growth, an avenue to take coursework not generally offered at UNM, and a roadmap to research geographic areas for graduate school.
NSE requirements include a 2.5 grade point average and 24 credit hours, with at least one full-time semester completed on main campus. Students have one-year eligibility and may attend up to two schools from NSE’s 174 options. Some schools accept all eligible students, while acceptance to others may be very competitive. Feb. 19 is the deadline to apply.
At the next Parent Talk on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 6-7 p.m. in the Dean of Students Conference Room, Student Services Building, Marla Wyche Hall, University College, discusses student research fairs and conducting research as an undergraduate.
Story by Laurie Mellas, Parent Relations Senior Program Manager
Climate Action Plan submitted in accordance with American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment
The University of New Mexico Carbon Neutral Task Force has plans to move the university towards climate neutrality by 2050, using more renewable energy sources, coupled with a commitment towards increased sustainable building and occupancy practices.
In June 2007, UNM President David Schmidly signed the university on to the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, pledging that UNM would develop a plan to become carbon neutral.
The UNM Carbon Neutral Task Force, appointed by Sustainability Council Chair Mary Vosevich, conducted an inventory of the university’s greenhouse gases, including emissions from utilities and commuting by UNM’s students, staff and faculty. Associate Director of Utilities, Jeff Zumwalt, completed the inventory in August 2008, using baseline data collected in 2006.
Then Mary Clark from the UNM Office of Sustainability engaged Bruce Milne, director of UNM’s Sustainability Studies program, and students in his Sustainability 434 class to work with the Carbon Neutral Task Force in developing the climate neutrality plan.
The class spent the Spring 2009 semester studying business plans, consumer and commuting behaviors, as well as renewable energy, and wrote the “Climate Neutrality at UNM” report and presented it in an open forum in May 2009. Members of the UNM community, neighborhood associations and local environmentalists were invited to give their input.
“UNM’s first Climate Action Plan is a very intelligent, comprehensive document written collaboratively by an enthusiastic group of students, staff and faculty. Everyone who worked on it was committed to sustainability and to creating a plan unique to our university community,” Clark said. “The plan outlines specific renewable energy projects, recommendations for changes in energy consumer and commuting behaviors, and utility upgrades to meet our goal of climate neutrality by 2050.”
The plan was presented to the Lobo Energy, Inc. board of directors in August and was approved by the UNM Board of Regents in Sept. 2009. It was then submitted to the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment.
The entire Climate Action Plan can be viewed at UNM Sustainability or the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment website.
For more information about the program, contact Mary Clark at (505) 277-1142 or mary@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
Center dubbed Leonard W. Napolitano Ph.D. Anatomical Education Center
The UNM Board of Regents unanimously named Phase II of the Domenici Center for Health Sciences Education the Leonard W. Napolitano Ph.D. Anatomical Education Center at its meeting Tuesday, Jan. 12. Napolitano, who spoke at the meeting, became a founding member of the SOM faculty in 1964 and was SOM Dean from 1972 to 1993. He is largely credited with developing many of the school’s unique medical educational programs, including its nationally renowned Primary Care Curriculum.
Photo: Leonard Napolitano, center, is recognized at a UNM Board of Regents meeting recently.
Incoming Health Sciences Center students will have more than 53,000 square feet of state-of-the-art standardized patient space, mock exam rooms, computerized simulation rooms, anatomy labs and classrooms in the $20 million facility.
Medical, physical therapy, nursing and pharmacy students, as well as for a variety of continuing medical education courses, will use the Anatomical Education Center carrying Napolitano’s name. A clinical performance center is housed on the first floor of the building, while the anatomy lab, learning center and classrooms fill the second floor. The anatomy lab can accommodate up to 136 students, and provides ceiling and wall-mounted monitors for viewing instructor-led demonstrations or instructional videos.
“This advanced anatomical-instruction facility is likely the newest in the country, designed with custom-made technologies to enhance multidisciplinary learning in a progressive, safe environment for our students and faculty,” said Paul McGuire, chair, Department of Cell Biology and Physiology.
For more information on the Leonard W. Napolitano Ph.D. Anatomical Education Center, visit http://hsc.unm.edu/DomeniciCtr/index.shtml or call (505) 272-3322.
Media Contact: Luke Frank, (505) 272-3679; e-mail: lfrank@salud.unm.edu
Free talk on ways to revisit old versions of web pages
Herbert Van de Sompel, team leader of the prototyping team at the Research Library of Los Alamos National Laboratory will give a talk titled “’Memento’ Time Travel for the Web” on Wednesday, Feb. 10. 2010, at 3 p.m. in the Willard Reading Room in Zimmerman Library.
Photo: Herbert Van de Sompel
Have you ever felt frustrated by your inability to get to old versions of Web pages? Did you bookmark a page last year, and revisit it recently only to find that the current content isn't even remotely related to what caught your interest back then?
Remnants of the past Web are available, and there are many efforts ongoing to archive even more Web content even though it is not straightforward to get to those old versions.
What if you could activate a time machine in your browser or bot? At Los Alamos National Laboratory, Van de Sompel along with his team and colleagues from Old Dominion University developed the Memento solution to make accessing old Web content as easy as accessing current content.
The solution is based on existing HTTP capabilities applied in a novel way to add a temporal dimension to the Web. The result is a framework in which archived resources can seamlessly be reached via the URI of their original – protocol-based time travel for the Web. Join us in discovering the past via the Web.
Van de Sompel graduated in Mathematics and Computer Science at Ghent University (Belgium), and in 2000 obtained a Ph.D. in Communication Science there. For many years, he headed Library Automation at Ghent University. After leaving Ghent in 2000, he was Visiting Professor in Computer Science at Cornell University, and Director of e-Strategy and Programmes at the British Library.
Currently, he is the team leader of the Prototyping Team at the Research Library of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Team does research regarding various aspects of scholarly communication in the digital age, including information infrastructure, interoperability, digital preservation and indicators for the assessment of the quality of units of scholarly communication.
Herbert has played a major role in creating the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH), the Open Archives Initiative Object Reuse & Exchange specifications (OAI-ORE), the OpenURL Framework for Context-Sensitive Services, the SFX linking server, the bX scholarly recommender service, and info URI. Currently, he works with his team on the Open Annotation and Memento (time travel for the Web) projects.
The next e-research lecture coming up April 23. Rajan Gupta from the Los Alamos National Laboratory will present “Geospatial Cognition and Understanding of Global Energy Systems.”
The talk is free and the public is welcome. For more information contact Pauline Heffern pheffern@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Arne Dietrich, associate professor of psychology in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the American University in Beirut, Lebanon will talk at the Mind Research Network on Wednesday, Jan. 27 at 11:45 a.m. The talk is titled “Trying to Nail Jelly to the Wall: Where in the Brain is Creativity?” The talk will be held in the MRN large conference room in Pete and Nancy Domenici Hall and is open to all.
Photo: Arne Dietrich
Dietrich holds a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from the University of Georgia and has done research on the higher cognitive functions supported by the prefrontal cortex, focusing mostly on the neural mechanisms of creativity, altered states of consciousness, and the psychological effects of exercise.
UNM will host a ‘Welcome Back Day’ for the spring semester on Wednesday, Jan. 20 in the SUB Ballroom from 10:30 am - 1:30 p.m. The ‘Welcome Back Day’ will include information booths, video games, live music and free green chile chicken cheese soup starting at 12 p.m. until it’s all gone.
Departments and or organizations interested in having an information booth should contact the Student Activities Center at 277-4706 to RSVP.
Free tickets available with a UNM ID
Step Afrika! - the nations first professional company dedicated to stepping will be appearing in Popejoy Hall on Tuesday, Feb. 9 at 7:30 pm. Stepping is a unique dance tradition that grew out of the song and dance rituals practiced by historically African American fraternities and sororities where the body is used as an instrument to create intricate rhythms and sounds through a combination of footsteps, claps and spoken word.
Anyone with a UNM ID can get two free tickets at the UNM Bookstore Box Office. Public tickets are $7.50 through unmtickets.com. For more information about Step Afrika! visit: www.stepafrika.com or call ASUNM Student Special Events at 277-5602.
The UNM Prevention Research Center will present a research seminar titled, "Agent-based models for socio-economic applications: empirical foundations and analyses for public policies," on Friday, Jan. 15 in Ste. 120 at 1 p.m. in the RIB Commons located at 2703 Frontier, NE.
The research seminar will feature Ricardo Boero from the University of Torino (Italy) and the University of Surrey (UK).
The seminar will be followed by a question and answer session. For more information contact the Prevention Research Center at
(505) 272-4462.
For many New Mexico college students, a trip out of the Land of Enchantment is in the cards after graduation. This “brain drain” of New Mexico’s college graduates is costing the state millions of dollars. This week “New Mexico in Focus” asks what is causing the some of the New Mexico’s best and brightest to leave, and what can business owners and policy makers do to slow this trend? “New Mexico In Focus” airs on Friday, Jan. 15 at 7 p.m. on KNME-TV channel 5.1 and repeating on Sunday, Jan. 17 at 6:30 a.m.
Hosted by Gene Grant, columnist for the Weekly Alibi, “New Mexico in Focus” takes a multi-layered look at social, political, economic, health, education, and arts issues and explores them in-depth, with a critical eye to give them context beyond the “news of the moment.”
This week “New Mexico in Focus” correspondent Elaine Baumgartel sits down with N.M. State Senator Tim Keller (D-Albuquerque), Kim Sanchez Rael, general partner with Flywheel Ventures, and Tom Stephenson, co-founder of The Verge Fund to talk about New Mexico’s college graduate exodus.
Then on “The Line” Grant and this week’s panelists will debate the start of the upcoming legislative session, how Gov. Bill Richardson will handle his final legislative session, which tax proposals might have the best chance of passing, and what other issues the New Mexico Legislature might tackle during this year’s 30-day session.
Guest this week include:
· Christie Chisholm, freelance journalist
· Pat Frisch, A.M. Operations Manager, Citadel Communications
· Joe Monahan, blogger, joemonahan.com
· Steve Terrell, reporter, Santa Fe New Mexican
New Mexico in Focus can also be seen on KNME’s Digital Channel 9.1 on Saturdays at 5 p.m. Additionally, viewers can also watch it online at: KNME (www.knme.org).
“New Mexico in Focus” is produced by Kevin McDonald and Kathy Wimmer and closed captioning has been made possible by a gift from Mrs. Elspeth G. Bobbs.
Media Contact: Evy Todd, (505) 277-1812; e-mail: etodd@knme.org
New housing to be located west of "The Pit"
On Tuesday, Jan. 12 the University of New Mexico Board of Regents unanimously approved the concept forwarded by American Campus Communities for development of an 864-bed student housing community on UNM’s south campus – currently the home of University Stadium and university’s renowned basketball arena, “The Pit.”
The new student housing community will be located in the area south of Avenida Cesar Chavez, west of “The Pit” and east of Interstate 25. Construction is expected to start late in the spring of 2010 and the community will be housing students starting in fall 2011.
Students will be housed in furnished apartment units complete with high-speed Internet and private-bedroom, private-bathroom accommodations. Four individual rooms are joined by a central living and learning area, and these units will then join together to create larger living areas.
A community center for the complex will be located near Avenida Cesar Chavez. This center is designed to be the “heart and soul” of the new housing community. The center will be connected to UNM’s main campus via a shuttle loop and will include management and residence life paraprofessional functions for the community, a leasing center, study rooms, computer labs, recreation center and other places for students to socialize.
The housing center will be consistent with the university’s Pueblo Revival look and will include open spaces with xeriscaped landscaping. The development will be energy efficient as well, meeting the United States Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification standards.
The new student community will be approximately 18.5 acres in size, and will require $1.6 million in roadway infrastructure improvements to the area. The total expected project cost is $41.6 million and no taxpayer or university money will be used.
"This is the first exciting step in dramatically modernizing the student residential experience at UNM," said Jason Wills, ACC senior vice president. "We are very excited about the opportunity to partner with the University of New Mexico and look forward to supporting the university in achieving its academic and student development objectives."
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
The Maxwell Museum will open the year with the Ancestors Lecture by E. James Dixon, Director of the museum. The lecture, titled “New Insights into the Origins of the First Americans will be presented on Wednesday, Jan. 27, at 7 p.m. in Hibben 105 on the UNM main campus.
Photo: E. James Dixon
Shortly after the height of the last Ice Age the initial colonization of North Americas is believed to have begun but scholars differ on the southern route traversed by people of Northeast Asia. Dixon, director of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology and Professor of Anthropology, will share recent discoveries that provide new insights into this exciting and challenging topic in American archeology.
When, why, and how humans spread across the Earth are fundamental questions asked by scientist for hundreds of years. The first occupation of the Americas was one of the final chapters in the human colonization of our planet. New evidence and archeological discoveries support a growing body of scientific evidence suggesting that the most plausible route for the initial colonization of North Americas may have begun in Northeast Asia and proceeded along the southern coast of Beringia, and then southward along the Northwest Coast of North America.
Radiocarbon dating of human remains in the Americas suggests that this may have occurred shortly after the height of the last Ice Age, probably between about 18,000 and 13,000 years ago.
For more information call 277-1400.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
A brown bag lunch addressing the social determinants of health and health disparities will be held Wednesday, Jan. 20 from 12 to 1 p.m. at RIB Commons. Attendees will learn about the Health Equity Assessment Tool (H.E.A.T) developed to assess health equity in Bernalillo County with data available and potential applications statewide. The brown bag will be hosted by the UNM Prevention Research Center.
The brown bag will feature Thomas N. Scharmen, epidemiologist with New Mexico Department of Health and George Schroeder, environmental health manager in the Bernalillo County Office of Environmental Health.
The brown bag will be held the UNM Prevention Research Commons, Ste. 120, located at 2703 Frontier, N.E. For more information please contact, Emily Piltch at (505) 272-8279 or via e-mail at, epiltch@salud.unm.edu.
Popular recycling program returns
UNM Recycling has placed large bins in the E-lot on Redondo at the southeast corner of Johnson Field and at in the M lot on Tucker and Yale across from the Court of Appeals building to give the UNM community a place to recycle old telephone books. The bins will be there until Feb. 26, 2010.
UNM Resource Conservation Manager Linda McCormick says, “This is a major recycling project that benefits both UNM and the surrounding community. It’s a great way to promote sustainability and reach out to our neighbors.”
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
UNM and the UNM Board of Regents started preparation for a difficult session of the New Mexico legislature by hearing details of New Mexico revenue projections and appropriation scenarios. The difficulties are across the board and impact every sector of the state.
Photo: New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee Chief Economist Tom Clifford.
At the regular regents meeting, New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee Chief Economist Tom Clifford talked about LFC recommendations for a tuition credit, possibly in the range of six percent, potential salary reductions, and sweeping slashes of capital outlay and building repair funds.
Regents requested that Clifford take back to the LFC their objections to these recommendations, especially the tuition credit which negatively impacts students The New Mexico legislature goes into session on Jan. 19. In the face of falling gross receipts taxes and energy prices lawmakers must piece together a budget that is about $900-million less than their 2007 budget.
Listen: Tom Clifford’s Presentation
View: Clifford’s Powerpoint Presentation
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
University of New Mexico Press has two titles among this year’s must-reads, as chosen by the Tucson-Pima County Public Library’s Southwest Books of the Year, a list of reading suggestions for Southwest book lovers selected by a distinguished panel of judges.
The Naked Rainbow and Other Stories: El arco iris desnudo y Otros Cuentos, Nasario García’s collection of bilingual folktales set in his native Rio Puerco Valley of northern New Mexico, was one of 12 titles selected as “Top Picks” of 2009.
Based on García’s personal experiences or stories he heard about people or events while growing up in his valley, the tales included in The Naked Rainbow and Other Stories illustrate the vibrant culture of rural northern New Mexico and its inhabitants with a cast of common characters whose compassion, willfulness, humor, observation, and spirit reflect the rich heritage of the environment that inspired their creation. Panelist Patricia Etter, curator emerita of the Labriola National American Indian Data Center at Arizona State University, called García’s vignettes “a delight to read.”
Also among “Top Picks” was Levi Romero’s A Poetry of Remembrance: New and Rejected Works. Through familiar details—leaking faucets and lowriders, chicharrones and chicken coops—Romero uses poetry to explore familia, comunidad and tradiciones from his upbringing in northern New Mexico’s Embudo Valley. Panelist Bill Broyles, author, naturalist, and retired teacher, commented, “Too many poets write to become something they are not; Levi Romero writes to be someone he is. And his poems are wonderful. Dragon flies, low rider cars, grandmothers and adobe homes appear with ease and depth.”
Twelve UNM Press titles were also included on the “Notable Books” list:
** The Forester’s Log: Musings from the Woods by Mary Stuever
** Gila Country Legend: The Life and Times of Quentin Hulse by Nancy Coggeshall
** Life on the Rocks: One Woman’s Adventures in Petroglyph Preservation by Katherine Wells
** The Lipan Apaches: People of Wind and Lightning by Thomas A. Britten
** Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of Arizona by W.C. Jameson
** Model Interstate Water Compact by Jerome C. Muys, George William Sherk, and Marilyn O’Leary
** Putrefaction Live by Warren Perkins
** Red Light Women of the Rocky Mountains by Jan MacKell
** The Secret War in El Paso: Mexican Revolutionary Intrigue, 1906-1920 by Charles H. Harris III and Louis R. Sadler
** The Spanish Language of New Mexico and Southern Colorado: A Linguistic Atlas by Garland D. Bills and Neddy A. Vigil
** Trickster in the Front Yard: Still Semi-Native by Jim Belshaw
Valles Caldera: A Geologic History by Fraser Goff
Southwest Books of the Year–Best Reading 2009 is published by the Southwest Literature Project of Pima County Public Library in partnership with the Friends of the Pima County Public Library and the Arizona Historical Society. This is the 33nd annual edition.
For more information on UNM Press titles, contact Katherine MacGilvray, at 505-277-3291 or katm@unm.edu.
Audition registration deadline Monday, Feb. 15
Auditions are open for UNM’s first ever "You Got Talent?" - a UNM-only talent show benefiting the Health Sciences Center’s Center For Life Preventive and Integrative Medicine Specialty Clinic. UNM, UNMH, HSC and UNMMG, students, faculty, staff, alumni and immediate family members are invited and encouraged to “break a leg” on stage for a chance to win a $500 first prize; $300 second prize; or $200 third prize – and the opportunity to perform on Albuquerque’s big stage, Popejoy Hall.
Finalists will be judged by NM Symphony Orchestra Conductor Guillermo Figueroa; Dance Theater Southwest Director Patricia Dickinson; KOB-TV 4 Anchor Tom Joles; and UNM Executive Vice President for Health Sciences Dr. Paul Roth. Everyone who auditions will have the opportunity to perform at the You Got Talent?
Final show is on May 8 at Popejoy Hall. Audition registration deadline is Feb. 15. Auditions will be held at the Domenici Auditorium on Feb. 27.
For more information visit: http://hsc.unm.edu/som/cfl. Interested individuals may also call 925-4551 or e-mail centerforlife@salud.unm.edu for more information.
Then, back in the late 1800's, Hodgin Hall was the first place UNM built. Now, Hodgin Hall is being renovated to transform the building into The Alumni Center, the first place UNM alumni can call their own. Although the look and feel of the building will remain the same, it will now be updated and equipped with state-of-the-art technology and meeting space to better serve alumni. While the work is taking place, the UNM Alumni Relations Office is changing places temporarily and some of its contact information has changed.
Photo: Opened on Sept. 1, 1892, Hodgin Hall, UNM's oldest building, is set to undergo renovation in 2010.
Beginning Tuesday, January 19, 2010, the new address will be:
1117 Stanford NE (in the former Court of Appeals offices on the north campus)
Other contact information remains the same:
(505) 277-5808; (800) 258-6866
alumni@unm.edu
MSC 01-1160
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
For more information visit: UNM Alumni.
The University of New Mexico Parking and Transportation Services (PATS) Department is encouraging students, staff and faculty to participate in an online survey about metropolitan transportation. The survey is being administered by the Mid-Region Council of Governments (MRCOG) and the results of the survey will be used to help develop the 2035 Metropolitan Transportation Plan.
“UNM is a key destination in this state,” said Clovis Acosta, PATS’ Director. “Students, staff, faculty, and visitors come to UNM using a variety of transportation modes and have a variety of experiences. We want those perspectives to be represented in this survey.”
The MRCOG survey focuses largely on public transportation access and usage and is relevant even to those who have not or do not use public transportation. To take the short, online survey visit: MRCOG Survey.
The MRCOG is a multi-county governmental agency that provides planning services to the communities it serves in the areas of transportation, agriculture, workforce development, employment growth, land-use, water and economic development.
For more information visit PATS’ website: Parking & Tranportation or contact:
Brian Kilburn, PATS Public Information Representative, 277-5692; bkilburn@parking.unm.edu.
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
Campus Office of Substance Abuse (COSAP) Program Manager Jill Anne Yeagley has been appointed as a Fellow to the U.S. Department of Education’s Higher Education Center for Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention. Center Fellows are called upon to review publications and web documents, provide technical assistance and advise on emerging issues.
The Center works with colleges and universities throughout the country to develop strategies for changing campus culture, fostering environments that promote healthy lifestyles, and preventing illegal alcohol and other drug use among students. Preventionists in higher education have come to depend on the Center for technical assistance, publications and fact sheets, training and program evaluation support.
Yeagley’s role as a Higher Education Center Fellow will be to support the Center in its mission to serve higher education professionals and communities surrounding campuses in the development of safe, healthy, and learning-conducive environments.
Due to the large number of individuals requesting the H1N1 vaccine, the UNM Student Health and Counseling (SHAC) is currently vaccinating only UNM students. Faculty and staff may inquire about the availability of the H1N1 vaccine by calling the LoboCare Clinic at (505) 272-8481.
Availability is limited to employees and their family members over age 4. Please have your insurance information available before calling.
For more information visit: H1N1 Information.
One of the concerns that New Mexicans have grappled with for years is the achievement gap between Anglo and Hispanic students. Gov. Richardson wants to address this gap with the “Hispanic Education Act.” This week, “New Mexico in Focus” correspondent Tracy Dingmann sits down with New Mexico Education Department Secretary Veronica Garcia and New Mexico Senator Mark Boitano to discuss their ideas. “New Mexico In Focus” airs on Friday, Jan. 8 at 7 p.m. on KNME-TV channel 5.1 and repeating on Sunday, Jan. 10 at 6:30 a.m.
Hosted by Gene Grant, columnist for the Weekly Alibi, “New Mexico in Focus” takes a multi-layered look at social, political, economic, health, education, and arts issues and explores them in-depth, with a critical eye to give them context beyond the “news of the moment.”
Then on “The Line,” Grant and this week’s panelists will examine the latest proposals to deal with New Mexico’s budget shortfall, the recent Alamogordo tea-part protests, the South Valley incorporation defeat and other topics. Joining Grant this week is panelist Jim Scarantino, the editor of the “New Mexico Watchdog” and the following guest panelists:
· Lonna Atkeson, professor, UNM Political Science Department
· Jeffry Gardner, former Albuquerque Tribune writer
· Tom Garrity, The Garrity Group
New Mexico in Focus can also be seen on KNME’s Digital Channel 9.1 on Saturdays at 5 p.m. Additionally, viewers can also watch it online at: KNME.
“New Mexico in Focus” is produced by Kevin McDonald and Kathy Wimmer and closed captioning has been made possible by a gift from Mrs. Elspeth G. Bobbs.
Media Contact: Evy Todd, (505) 277-1812; e-mail: etodd@knme.org
A new video documentary depicting the challenges of preventing polluted stormwater from entering the Rio Grande will air on Saturday, Jan. 9 from 4:30 – 5 p.m. on KRQE TV Ch. 13. Vern Hershberger, UNM's manager of Environmental Health and chairman of the Mid Rio Grande Stormwater Quality Team, is participating as part of a continuing effort to educate businesses and residents on how they may unknowingly be adding to the problem of pollution in the Rio Grande – our main source of drinking water.
UNM works in collaboration with the City of Albuquerque and many other agencies to control the amount of waste that enters the Rio Grande. Environmental Health is part of the Safety & Risk Services Department who strives to create a more sustainable environment.
For more information on the documentary or stormwater pollution visit, Keeping the Rio Grand or visit UNM's Safety & Risk Services website.
Find out how researchers use neuroimaging to discover the origins and processes behind creativity; see how new research is leading to a better understanding of mammal extinction, check out how researchers can create polymers that trap and kill dangerous bacteria; and more in Quantum 2010, UNM's online research magazine.
Are we all creative or is creativity a gift given only to a few? Rex Jung in the School of Medicine’s Department of Neurosurgery is finding ways to begin to answer that question.
What are the ecological traits that make some mammal species more prone to extinction? Biology researchers Ana Davidson, Marcus Hamilton, Alison Boyer and James Brown and collaborator Geraldo Ceballos at Instituto de Ecologia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico are studying extinction of mammals through multiple ecological pathways.
Can you kill dangerous bacteria with ordinary light? David Whitten in Bioengineering is finding amazing new ways to stop dangerous bacteria from spreading and growing on surfaces.
Read about the ways UNM Faculty and researchers are answering those questions and much more in Quantum 2010.
The UNM Prevention Research Center will present a lecture titled, ‘Focus On Food: Youth Photography Project,’ as part of its Brown Bag Series on Wednesday, Jan. 13 from 12 to 1 p.m. The presentation is a photography project by 40 middle school students at Wilson and Grant Middle Schools to document the role of food as a reflection of kids' personal and cultural identities. The Brown Bag lunch will be held at the Research Incubator Building (RIB) Commons located at 2703 Frontier N.E.
The exhibit includes photos taken by the kids and excerpts from video interviews with the photographers. Many of these kids helped start the APS "Cheese Sandwich" campaign that received national media coverage and their contribution to combating hunger in their community was recognized by Memorials at the NM Legislature and the City Council. The exhibit was displayed at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Oct. – Dec. 2009 and will travel to the New Mexico Children's Cabinet for the Legislative Session.
Presenters include Kathy Sullivan, director, Infrastructure and Sustainability, New Mexico Community Foundation; Megan Mills-Novoa, Bill Emerson Hunger Fellow, National Congressional Hunger Center; and the New Mexico Community Foundation.
For more information please contact Janet Page-Reeves at (505) 272-4462 or by e-mail at: JPage-Reeves@salud.unm.edu.
An online course, Language and Education in Southwest Native American Communities, exploring the historical context of education and its impact on Native American language communities of the Southwest will be offered online by the College of Education this spring.
The class, taught by Assistant Professor Christine Sims in the Department of Language, Literacy and Socio-Cultural Studies (LSS), will be offered for undergraduate and graduate credit. Course offerings include: CRN# 37633 • LLSS 460-005 | CRN# 37684 • LLSS 560-005 and CRN# 39240 • NATV 460-005. The course fee is $100.
Online courses are developed at UNM and taught by UNM faculty and count for the same credit as their face-to-face counterparts. Online courses offer the convenience of day-to-day flexibility while following the UNM academic calendar. Due dates and learning activities are scheduled by the instructor on a weekly basis, just like campus courses. Online students have frequent contact with their instructor and classmates through online discussions, course mail, and group work.
Sims’ background is in the Bilingual Education Program in the Dept. of LLSS and the Educational Linguistics Program (a joint doctoral program of the Dept. of LLSS–College of Education and the Linguistics Dept.–College of Arts & Sciences). Her research interests include language policy, language planning and language pedagogy
For information on the class, admissions, registration, tuition or online format, contact Sims at (505) 277-3175 or via e-mail at, csims@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
Biology Professor Mary Anne Nelson will be honored today by the White House and President Barack Obama as one of 22 individuals and organizations to receive the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM). Colleagues, administrators, and students from their home institutions nominate candidates for the Presidential Mentoring Award.
Photo: Mary Anne Nelson
The event will be webcast at
White House.gov Live beginning at 11:30 mountain time. For more information visit: Presidential Award for Excellence.
This Presidential Award recognizes individuals and organizations that have demonstrated a commitment to mentoring students and increasing the participation of minorities, women and disabled students in science, mathematics and engineering. An additional 87 recipients received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.
“I'm very honored to have been recognized for my efforts in mentoring undergraduates and graduate students in the sciences,” said Nelson, who is also program director for the Minority Access to Research Careers or MARC. “However, it feels like the award should go to the students, not to me! It's been a real privilege and also lots of fun to work with these students. It's hard to put into words the joy of watching them progress as they embark on their research experience, and then go on to impressive careers.”
Nelson’s research interests center around sexual development in Neurospora crassa, the control of gene expression during development, fungal genomics. Nelson also directs the Neurospora Genome Project (NGP), which represents an effort to obtain partial or complete nucleotide sequences from a large number of cDNA clones derived from conidial, mycelial, unfertilized sexual and perithecial libraries of N. crassa.
The Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring, awarded each year since 1996 to individuals or organizations, recognizes the crucial role that mentoring plays in the academic and personal development of students studying science or engineering and who belong to minorities that are underrepresented in those fields.
The awards were created to recognize the critical importance of mentors in the academic and personal development of students and colleagues who are underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The mentoring can involve students at any grade level from elementary through graduate school.
By offering their time, encouragement and expertise to these students, mentors help ensure that the next generation of scientists and engineers will better reflect the diversity of the United States. The awardees serve as leaders in the national effort to develop fully the Nation's human resources in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
"There is no higher calling than furthering the educational advancement of our nation’s young people and encouraging and inspiring our next generation of leaders," President Obama said. "These awards represent a heartfelt salute of appreciation to a remarkable group of individuals who have devoted their lives and careers to helping others and in doing so have helped us all."
In addition to being honored at the White House, recipients receive awards of $10,000 from the National Science Foundation to advance their mentoring efforts. They also receive an all expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C. for the White House awards ceremony and several days of educational and celebratory events, including visits with members of Congress and science agency leaders.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
UNM's dial-up service will be ending June 1, 2010 following the conclusion of the spring semester. The advent of faster DSL, fiber-optic broadband, and wireless connections offered commercially, as well as the significant decrease to under 300 users monthly out of 70,000 eligible users, has made dial-up use nearly obsolete.
As well, UNM's dial-up network is older, and the IT Department can no longer afford to maintain and replace the system. IT apologizes for the inconvenience for people who have relied on this service for many years, and offers a significant lead time before June 2010 to offer dial-up users the chance to find a replacement service that works for them prior to the end of semester. For more information about alternate service providers visit: Network Dialups.
IT will be utilizing a listserv to send reminder messages to dial-up users, reminding them of the upcoming end-date of this service. For questions or concerns about the dial-up demise, contact Tracy Hart at, tlhart@unm.edu or 277-8075 for more information.
Media Contact: Vanessa Baca, (505) 277-0987; e-mail: vjbaca1@unm.edu
UNM’s Fine Arts and Design Library is hosting an exhibit of artwork by UNM student David Rogers. “Internal Landscapes” will be on exhibit in the Fine Arts and Design Library from Jan. 19 – March 12, 2010. A reception will be held on Jan. 29 from 6:30 - 8 p.m. in the Fine Arts and Design Library. The exhibition is viewable during regular library hours.
Rogers grew up steeped in an artistic family tradition. On his mother’s side, there is the Wyeth/Hurd clan, and his British father, Peter Rogers, is also a painter. He started painting in oils at around seven or eight years old. These paintings were still-lifes (influenced by his grandmother) and copies of Rembrandt and Vermeer.
His first one-man show was at the Santa Fe Office of the Mayor in 1979. He would continue to exhibit with his family in New Mexico, Texas and Pennsylvania until the early 90s. Rogers says, “at about fourteen, the work of the Impressionists thrilled me, and I tried to emulate Monet. My first portrait was commissioned by my teacher from the fifth grade who not only had cat-eye glasses but a deep purple bouffant hair-do.”
After graduating high school, he studied for several years at The Art Institute of Chicago. This enormously expanded his perspectives on art, and he was particularly excited by the German Expressionists, The New York School of Abstract Expressionism and the Neo-Expressionists.
His work during this period certainly showed their influence. On his second trip back to Chicago, he ended up staying for 16 years. During this period, he took part in 17 exhibitions. Some of these were group shows but there were nine solo shows, the most prestigious being an exhibition of a figurative Tarot series at The Theosophical Society in Wheaton, Illinois. He also painted an abstract series based on the Kabbalah and one on the Nine Norse Worlds.
Although he still paints figuratively, his newest work is abstract. The paintings in this exhibition were executed during his final semester in Art History at UNM where he received a BAFA with honors. He is now nearing the completion of another BA in Media Arts.
Rogers says about his current work:
"My new work is purely abstract. From the bones of form: circles, squares and triangles, I want to create a meditative state in the viewer. My paintings are not for glancing at; they are for exploring. Rather than what do they make you think, my question is how do they make you feel?
"Color and shape relationships are primary factors here. I want the paintings to dance in space and in harmony. I hope that one is transported to delight or contemplative states, for the paintings relate to internal emotional worlds. Influences on this series include Kasimir Malevich and Franz Kupka. These influences are not based on these artists’ intellectual theories, but on their strength of composition and color."
The event is free and open to the public. For more information contact Susan Hessney-Moore at 7-5443 or smoore3@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Ethics in research will be a front line issue for researchers and students in 2010. Recently, both the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health have asked for a greater commitment from institutions that receive federal funding to strengthen and enhance their educational efforts in ethics and the responsible conduct of research (RCR).
Beginning in January, all grant funding proposals submitted to the NSF must have a certification by the institution that students who work in research labs are receiving ethics instruction. Similarly, NIH will begin recommending RCR training at each career stage or every four years. The funding agencies will also require a system of record keeping, a menu of sufficient training options in the responsible conduct of research, and institutional assurance.
A detailed plan, titled “The Scientific Integrity Plan,” for fulfilling federal requirements for providing ethics training at UNM will be published in the near future. Researchers who need ethics certification for their proposals can refer to this plan, and will have access to a template to use in grant submissions. This information will be online at: UNM Research Ethics.
The plan will likely include a menu of substantial face-to-face research ethics courses as well as professional development and training content that will be available early in the graduate career of many students in research disciplines, assuring they have easy access to ethics instruction.
UNM’s President David Schmidly created Research Ethics and Integrity Program in the Office of the Vice President for Research, in 2008. Headed by Research Professor Bill Gannon, the program has been developed with the help of 12 UNM faculty advisors with expertise in ethics.
“More important than the compliance aspect,” Gannon says, “is developing a culture that, when faced with an ethical dilemma in their research, researchers make the right choice.”
The Provost’s Committee for Staff (PCS) is seeking scholarship applicants for its Staff Academic Support Scholarship for the Spring 2010 semester. The scholarship is designed to help support staff who utilizes their tuition remission benefit. This is an opportunity for UNM staff to apply for limited financial support to be used to help cover the cost of academic books, course fees and supplies. The deadline is Wednesday, Jan. 13 at 5 p.m.
Eligibility requirements include: course(s) must be used toward degree or certificate completion or professional development; passed UNM Employment Probationary Status; be at least a .50 FTE UNM employee; must have a “Meet Expectations” or better on most recent Performance Review.
Application guidelines include a completed application form, and a statement outlining academic path and benefit of these funds towards your academic degree. For more information and an application visit: Academic Support Scholarship.
Applications and documents must be submitted via email, campus mail or by fax by Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010 at 5 p.m.
For more information contact Lina Sandve at 277-1326 or via e-mail at: lsandve@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
Information Technologies (IT) is standardizing printing costs in the IT computer pods for all students, faculty and staff, as part of a main campus effort to increase sustainability and promote accountability. Starting January 2010, the IT computer pods will offer up to 250 pages of no-charge printing.
A print credit of $10 will be applied to all current Lobo cards, enabling continued limited no-charge printing and assure accountability when printing. Once the print credit is used, print fees will be $.05 per single page and $.08 per double-sided page.
Though the majority of students keep printing to a minimum, a small percentage of UNM users consistently overuse the print system and create a significant waste of paper and energy resources. Implementing a print charge is just one way of more fairly and evenly distributing print costs across the board, as well as helping UNM stay “green.” Since the average student prints approximately 200 pages per semester, printing will remain no-charge for most students.
The $10 print credit can be used when printing in the IT computer pods within the current semester. A fresh print credit of $10 will be applied at the beginning of each semester. Though charging for printing is a new procedure in the IT computer pods, most other large universities across the country have been charging for printing for several years. As costs continue to rise for paper, ink and energy, and the nationwide economy stagnates, this unfortunately translates into increased printing costs for students, faculty and staff. However, the inclusion of the $10 print credit per semester will help alleviate these expenses.
The print credit will also be useable in the University Libraries, providing faculty, students and staff a common and convenient printing experience.
For more information visit: IT Pods or contact the IT Support Center at 277-4848.
Media Contact: Vanessa Baca, (505) 277-0987; e-mail: vjbaca1@unm.edu
Undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff, engineers, scientists, mathematicians, computer scientists, botanists, psychologists, social workers and counselors are all needed to help judge the 2010 Central New Mexico Science & Engineering Research Challenge. Judging takes place in the Johnson Center South Gym on Friday, March 19, from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Join in on the fun of this amazing competition and help do some recruitment for UNM as nearly 600 middle & high school students from across central New Mexico converge on Johnson Center for the 50th anniversary of the 2010 Central New Mexico Science & Engineering Research Challenge.
Interested applicants may signup online at: Judges Form. Simply fill out the form and submit online. Applicants will receive a packet of information at the end of February.
The Office of Research is the 2009-10 Institutional sponsor of the 50th annual Central New Mexico Science & Engineering Research Challenge.
For questions or more additional information, call Karen Kinsman, kkinsman@unm.edu or Laura Werner, scifair@unm.edu, 277-4916 or visit: STEM.
The next installment of UNM Parent Talk is Wednesday, Jan. 6, at 6 p.m. on the main campus. Lauren Fowler-Young and Rob Burford, coordinators for Study Abroad and National Student Exchange, respectively, will discuss international and U.S. educational opportunities available to UNM students.
Parents, families and students are invited to attend this free event to learn how students can broaden their academic horizons. Light refreshments will be served.
The Study Abroad Office in the Office of International Programs and Studies at UNM offers One-To-One Exchanges and Summer Session programs.
National Student Exchange offers UNM students the opportunity for educational study at approximately 170 colleges across the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, plus the U.S. Territories of Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Seize this opportunity while utilizing your UNM scholarships and paying UNM tuition.
Parent Talks are held the first Wednesday of each month in the Dean of Students Conference Room, 2nd floor of the Student Services Building (main campus).
Parking is $1.75 per hour in the Cornell Parking Structure near Central and Cornell NE. To get to the Student Services Center (SSC) from the Cornell Parking Structure walk north on Cornell Mall. Pass by Popejoy Hall and the Student Union (SUB). At the SUB’s north end, go east to the SSC.
To view past presentations and for more information, visit: Parent Talk.
In January of 2009, UNM President David J. Schmidly formed the Federal Race and Ethnicity Codes Compliance Project and charged it with bringing UNM into compliance with the new Federal standards for maintaining, collecting, and presenting data on race and ethnicity. Data collection using new codes began this fall. As of that date, everywhere that UNM collects, stores, and uses race and ethnicity data had successfully been brought into compliance with the new Federal standards.
Now it is time to update the data using the new values. Beginning in January, 2010, all active staff, students, and faculty members will be asked to update their race and ethnicity data using the new Federally-mandated response categories.
The survey will be presented automatically upon accessing LoboWeb to everyone who has not had an opportunity to respond using the new categories. The change will take place effective Jan. 19, 2010, when individuals log into LoboWeb to conduct business such as checking grades, class schedules, or pay stubs.
“The Race & Ethnicity Steering Committee selected to begin the survey in January because that is such a busy time for LoboWeb, with students using it to make changes to their class schedules, and staff and faculty checking their addresses before the W-2s are mailed out,” said Carol Bernhard, Project Manager of the compliance project.
For more information visit the project page at: Federal Race and Ethnicity Codes Compliance Project or e-mail, resurvey@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
The University of New Mexico Foundation is sponsoring a grant-writing workshop Feb. 8-12, 2010 conducted by the The Grantsmanship Center (TGCI). The workshop will be held in the Rotunda at UNM’s Science and Technology Park.
The workshop is designed for both novice and experienced grant seekers. It will cover all aspects of searching for grants, writing grant proposals, strategies for securing government and foundation grants, corporate contributions and negotiating with funding sources.
The Grantsmanship Center (TGCI) is the world’s oldest, largest and most respected fund development training organization. Since 1972, TGCI has trained more than 100,000 staff members of nonprofit, government and academic institutions around the world.
Registration is limited to a total of 30 participants per session, and a limited number of seats have been reserved for UNM employees. The program fee is $895. Early enrollment is encouraged as TGCI workshops often fill to capacity. UNM faculty and staff are eligible to use UNM’s tuition remission benefit to attend.
To register for the workshop contact Marie McGhee in the Continuing Education office at (505) 277-0723 or via e-mail mmcghee@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The 47th Paving & Transportation conference opens at 8 a.m. on Jan. 4. The conference, which is sponsored annually by the UNM Department of Civil Engineering and the Alliance for Transportation Research will be held at the Marriott Pyramid North.
Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry will furnish a local perspective on transportation and paving issues, and will be followed by the New Mexico Secretary of Transportation Gary Giron. The keynote address will come from Gregory G. Nadeau, the Deputy Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration in Washington, D.C.
The meeting features the latest research into pavements, and panels on how best to communicate information about highway projects to the public. For more information visit:
Paving & Transportation Agenda
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu